Idea
A new product starts as an idea. This idea may be in response to a specific brief, or identifying a gap in the market, or a new trend, in fact it may be generated from any number of different circumstances.
It is vital to understand that customers do not buy ideas, they buy products, and it is wise therefore, at an early stage, to get some feedback from prospective customers on the idea.

Concept
A successful new product only attains success if it meets consumers’ needs. These needs may have been learnt from research or personal experience: sometimes the need is ‘latent’, lying just below the level of awareness.
The first step therefore is to see if the idea can, or is capable of, satisfying a need. There is only one way of doing this; to go into the marketplace and see what it thinks of the idea, and to keep costs down, the preferred way of testing ideas is to turn the idea into a product ‘concept’. This ‘concept’, often expressed in a few simple sentences, can then be turned into material for market research. Illustrated boards or photographic collages, together with a name and a clear statement of the product’s proposition or claim can usually provide sufficient material for early research. It does not matter how the need was identified the response to the concept must be powerful and positive, if it is not then the idea must be adapted.

This research is a stage when rich feedback is wanted: it is a time when important lessons can be learned, inexpensively, before the full development process is under way.


When you are confident the concept has got strong acceptance from the target purchasing group, you need to turn it into a brief for the JARVIS DEVELOPMENT team. This is a stage when you are turning your idea, expressed as a concept, into a product or range of products, and when the value of the feedback from the concept research needs to be studied thoroughly and objectively. If the feedback does not inspire confidence then the idea must be adapted. Key marketing questions need to be addressed before the brief can be complete. Pricing expectations, packaging requirements, channels of distribution, sales resources and promotional plans are some of the key issues to resolve in principle at this time. For JARVIS to work effectively with you, we are going to need the answers to most of these aspects before starting on the research and chemistry of product development.


The marketplace is an expensive arena in which to learn lessons. We therefore recommend that your brief and budget allows for subsequent samples for you to canvass target purchasers, (preferably, but not essentially, in the chosen packaging).