Market Research and the New Product Development Process

Abstract

Abstract Market research is an important tool throughout all the steps that involve developing new products. Nevertheless, the inadequate use of the available research methodologies raises the probability of failure within innovation to be negotiated in the markets. Based on the stated, this article systematizes the main types of market research to be carried out along the stages of the product development process, as well as its stages and data analysis procedures. Initially, regarding the bibliographic research, it was possible to identify five market research problems throughout the NPD stages: (i) identification of latent demands, (ii) identification of requirements valued by customers, (iii) concept testing, (iv) prototype testing and (v) evaluation of product performance with consumers. Therefore, to establish the appropriate research processes for each of the listed problems, a focus group was conducted with specialists. The proposed classification constitutes a framework that can be adopted for validation in further studies, because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. The synthesis proposed in this work contributes to guiding the managers who act directly in the processes of product innovation.