Principles of New Product Management: Exploring the Beliefs of Product Practitioners

Conventional wisdom might lead us to conclude that the various disciplines involved in product development and management are often at cross-purposes. For example, practitioners from R&D and engineering have been known to suggest that marketing fails to understand the technical trade-offs involved in product management decisions. Conversely, marketing professionals sometimes complain that their technology-oriented colleagues pursue product development initiatives without adequate market awareness. And practitioners from both sides of this debate have asserted that research on new product development tends to be of the ivory tower variety, with little or no relevance for industry. Are such complaints valid? Perhaps it is time for a reality check. By searching academic literature on product development, Roger J. Calantone, C. Anthony Di Benedetto, and Ted Haggblom have compiled a list of 40 fundamental principles of new product development. This list forms the basis for a survey of new product practitioners from marketing and technical disciplines. The study provides a means for assessing whether practitioners agree with the fundamental principles of new product development that are identified in current academic literature. By obtaining responses from both marketing and technical professionals, the survey also sheds light on whether those two groups hold fundamentally different beliefs regarding new product development. The survey results reveal strong overall agreement among practitioners regarding these fundamental principles of new product management. Managers believe that 80% of the principles are either usually or almost always true. In other words, the survey results support the idea that the academic community is pursuing research issues that are relevant to practitioners, and that they are reaching valid conclusions. There are only a few cases in which the responses from the technical and marketing practitioners differ. Those disagreements probably result from differences in the basic orientations of the two groups. For example, it is not surprising that marketing managers would be more likely to agree that “product users and the marketplace form the most important source for new product ideas,” while technical managers more strongly support the idea that “radically new technologies constitute an important source of new product ideas.” The respondents noted overall disagreement with only a few of the 40 principles. In many of these cases, the academic literature has reached mixed conclusions. In other words, these “principles” might actually be oversimplifications, and further research is probably needed before we can fully understand the issues involved.     

The Effect of Brand Management and Product Quality on Firm Performance: The Italian Craft Brewing Sector

The article contributes to the limited literature on marketing strategies of microfirms operating in new niches within mature industries. The study explores the effect of brand management processes and product quality on performance of microfirms in the Italian brewing industry. Preliminary qualitative interviews with eight entrepreneurs were realized. Then 92 questionnaires were collected from the entire population of 335 microbreweries operating in Italy for quantitative analysis. Findings suggest intrinsic product quality being the most relevant determinants of firms’ performance, while the adoption of brand management processes exerts a significant, negative impact. The article takes into account the relationship between brand management, quality, and performance by focusing on a single industry. Future research may enhance the significance of our findings by including multiple sectors. Entrepreneurs and microbusiness leaders should carefully assess both external (industry life-cycle stage) and internal (resource availability) factors before engaging in any brand management activity. In mature firms, it may be more beneficial and effective focusing on enhancing product quality. The article addresses an important gap regarding the adoption of brand management practices in microfirms, adding to the emerging strategic marketing literature in the small business field.