INTRODUCTION Product development means making changes in the size, design, color, shape, characteristics, packing etc.

of the product. It may include addition of a new product line, addition of a new product item in a particular product line, elimination of existing product or product line & changes in the size, color, design, packing, characteristics, and prices of the product & discontinuation of the unprofitable item or product line. A new product is any product which is perceived by the customer as being new.

REASONS FOR NEW PRODUCTS There are at least 3 reasons for which new products should be developed.

1st, new products become necessary for meeting the changes in consumer needs. 2nd, new products become necessary for making new profits. 3rd, new products become necessary for combating environmental threats.

CATEGORIES OF NEW PRODUCTS

BOOZ, ALLEN & HARMILTON have identified 6 categories of new products, such as:
1: New to the world. 2: New to the product lines. 3: Additions to the existing product line. 4: Improvements & revisions of existing products. 5: Repositioning. 6: Cost reductions.

FACTORS OF NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT:

New product development is a continuous function of marketing management in the present day highly competitive environment. In the process of new product development, a company should keep in mind the following considerations:

Adequate market demand. The product should fit into companys present market

structure. The idea should fit into the companys present production structure. The product should fit as per the financial resources available.

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

STEP 1:IDEA GENERATION

The new product development process starts with the search for ideas. Consumers problems are the most fertile ground for the generation of new product ideas. New product ideas come from interacting with various groups & from using creativity generation techniques like BRAINSTORMING, SYNECTICS etc. i

STEP 2: IDEA SCREENING

The purpose of screening stage is to drop poor ideas as early as possible. Thus an idea committee is formed to classify the proposed ideas into 3 categories, such as: promising, marginal & rejects. Every promising idea is kept together for rigorous screening by product evaluation committee.

STEP 3:CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT & TESTING

A concept is an elaborated version of a product idea expressed in meaningful consumer terms. Example: a leading soft drink company, if wants to add a new product, i.e. fruit juice to its product lines, then the following concepts can came across: CONCEPT 1: FRUIT JUICE FOR YOUNG & GROWN UPS AS A FUNNY THIRST QUENCHING ITEM. CONCEPT 2: FRUIT JUICE FOR CHILDREN AS A HEALTH SUPPLEMENTS. CONCEPT 3: FOR ADULTS AS A NUTRITIONAL ENERGY SUPPLEMENTS. From the above 3 concepts, the 1st one looks to be attractive & promising. After the product concept has been developed, the stage is now set for testing them. It is here the prospective consumer understand the product idea. Here whether they are receptive towards the idea & their willingness to try out such product is tested.

STEP 4: BUSINESS ANALYSIS This stage will decide whether from financial as well as marketing point of view, the project is beneficial or not. The projects overall impact on the corporations financial position with & without the new product are estimated & compared. Here management needs to prepare sales as well as cost & profit projections to determine whether they satisfy company objectives.

STEP 5: PROTOTYPING & MARKET TESTING

At this stage the company will determine whether the product idea can be translated into technically & commercially feasible product. Its goal is to find a prototype that consists the key attributes described in the product concept & that performs safely under normal use & conditions and that can be produced within the budgeted cost. Here the companies conduct 2 types of major testings, such as: ALPHA TESTING & BETA TESTING. ALPHA TESTING: testing within the firm to see its function. BETA TESTING: It includes listing a set of customers to use the prototype & give feedback.

MARKET TESTING:

The product here is actually tested in the selected market segments. Based on the outcomes of the test marketing, the marketer lunches large scale manufacture of the new product. It is a controlled marketing experiment to decide the soundness & feasibility of fully fledged marketing of the product.

COMMERCIALISATION

At this stage the company takes decision to go in for large scale production & marketing of the new product. Various marketing strategies are employed by the company at this stage, when it starts commercialization of a new product idea. The important factors to which strategists should focus here are: Market entry timing period. Whether to lunch the product in a single locality, a region, several regions, nationally or internationally, i.e. geographic strategy. To whom the new product should target for i.e. targeting & segmenting.

NEW PRODUCT FAILURE Faulty product idea Distribution related problems Poor timing of launch

From the outset, the Nano had many problems. Firstly, the cars manufacture was delayed . Instead of selling the Nano openly, Tata introduced a lottery booking system. In mid-2010 there were widely published reports about the Nano catching fire. The reputation of the car was tarnished. The large number of initial orders led to overconfidence. Significantly, Tata failed to put in place an effective advertising strategy, meaning that when sales dwindled, the company had no plan to reach its potential customer base

CONCLUSION
Every year millions of rupees are being spent on R&D for new products development. Such a huge investment is necessary as new products are the only means of survival of a firm. New product development provides a number of advantages to the enterprise. It helps in producing goods & services of best quality. It helps in providing maximum customer satisfaction, because it is developed in the view of customer specification. It helps in expanding the market of the products of the enterprise. It helps in achieving stability in product demand.