Question

GM has a new electric car called the Bolt. It has a 200-mile range per charge and costs under $40,000. Take this new product through the New Product Development process (list and discuss the steps from the lecture). Briefly explain what GM would do/consider at each step of the process. The idea is already there, so you can skip the idea generation initial step.

Answer 1

New product development changes an idea into final product. This seems easy, but there are many criteria and strategised decisions to be made before thinking about the productions. New product development is a process of bringing a new product into the market. The process of new product development is,

Now in the question, the part of idea generation has already happened.

• Next comes the screening of the idea. This process scrutinises the idea. It evaluates whether the new product will be sustainable and compatible to the business objectives of GM. Here, GM can study the new model's mileage, design, large leg and boot space, luxuries which can be added etc
• Next comes the concept testing or concept development. Here the basic concepts are tested like whether the safety requirements are met, can be exported at some point, etc.
• Next is the business analysis. One must study the current situation of GM, its brand reputation and then also study its competitors and their strategies. This new model is an electric car, so various electric cars in the market must be analysed. Their mileage and costs should be compared, and studied whether this new product would sustain in the market with this competition.
• Now after studying about the product and market situations, if the decision is positive to bring the model to market, then it should be well developed. Hence the initial product idea that survived is brought to this phase of product development and the R&D department of GM will come up with one or more physical versions of the model.
• The next step is test marketing. A test market is a group of people from a specific region or specific demographic group on whom the viability of the new model 'Bolt' will be tested. Here, these people's actions, responses and thoughts are closely monitored. By this GM can get a close idea about what would happen when the product is launched in the actual market.
• Next and the final step for Bolt is commercialisation. After passing the test marketing, if GM thinks that this model can make profit then Bolt would ve brought to the market via commercialisation. The production quantity of Bolt will increase and much marketing and sales promotion is done at this part. With a proper pricing strategy, advertising plan, a marketing strategy and a list if distributors, this product can be brought to the customers.