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New Product Development Process Stages For Your Business

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New Product Development Process Stages For Your Business

What Exactly Is Product Development?

Product development is commonly used to refer to all stages of getting a product from concept or idea through market release and beyond. In other words, product development encompasses the complete life cycle of a product.

Product development plans are vital for providing value to your potential clients, as well as ensuring demand and that your final products are of the greatest possible quality before releasing them to the market. The best products also benefit society, whether through the product line itself or through the job and money generation that the new things provide.

On the business side, a new product can increase a company’s market share and produce growth, ensuring economic sustainability through new revenue sources. Of course, it can take years for development teams to bring a product from the design phase to the point where it is ready for sale and distribution. As a result, in order for any new or existing items to be developed successfully, product development consulting is required to understand the entire product development process.

The Advantages of the Product Development Process

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The process of developing new products can be quite advantageous for any innovative and forward-thinking organisation that wants to be effective rather than short-sighted. Using the product development services can assist a company in saving money, innovating, formalising processes, testing concepts and avoiding frequent mistakes.

The following are the advantages of product development progress:

●Spend Less Money

It helps in saving money by determining the effectiveness of new goods in the NPD process before they are released to the market. This allows you to adapt your idea to market needs or withdraw it entirely, hence saving you time and money.

●Idea Generation & Innovation

The new product development process promotes and drives the generation of new ideas for your company. Having a framework to test the viability of your new product will automatically lead to its execution. Creating and nurturing an innovative culture is critical to the commercial success of the company and its employees.

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●Improve and formalise the concept development process

At the start of the new product development life cycle, just like a new business, you must adequately identify your product concept. It must be done with the anticipated consumer in mind and hence the product must be described in meaningful consumer terms.

●Concept Validation

The concept development approach works best when combined with the concept validating procedure. Once the concept has been finalised, it must be tested against market conditions and targeted. It is accomplished through market research procedures that test the target consumer. It would entail showing the consumer a tangible depiction of the product.

●Strategy for Marketing

The new product development process, with the help of product development consulting, can assist you in developing marketing strategies for your product. It is a natural next step after your concept has been designed and tested. You may turn this into a marketing strategy using the information you gathered throughout the development phase.

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Product Development Strategy: Stages

The following Are the Stages of a Successful Product Development Strategy:

1. Generating Ideas

Products provide solutions to challenges. So where should this adventure begin? By recognising a problem that needs to be solved (or a better way of solving it). This process can be informed by conversations with potential consumers, surveys and other user research efforts.

2. Screening of Ideas

Not every problem is severe enough to necessitate a product-based solution. The amount of pain it causes and the number of individuals or organisations it affects, on the other hand, can determine if it’s a worthwhile problem to tackle and whether people are prepared to pay for a solution.

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3. Development and testing of concepts

Some solutions may be clear, while others may be more difficult to grasp. This is when the team puts in the effort and applies their imagination to figure out how a product can best meet its needs. Also, before devoting too much time to prototyping and design, the viability of the suggested solution should be tested.

4. Market Strategy/Analysis of the Business

Marketing strategy is all about devising a strategy for reaching out to a specific audience. It is critical to strategize about the selling price in an informed manner by determining the product’s base price.

5. Product Creation

With a valid product concept in hand, product management can lay out the product roadmap, determining which themes and goals are critical to creating first in order to alleviate the most significant pain points and stimulate adoption. Customers will just require enough functionality in this initial version of the product to use it.

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6. Market Testing

Testings can evaluate interest, prioritise marketing channels and start experimenting with price sensitivity and packaging. It also initiates the feedback loop, which allows ideas, complaints and suggestions to be prioritised and added to the product backlog.

7. Market Entry/Commercialization

With a product on the market, user feedback via multiple channels will drive additions, expansions and adjustments. The product roadmap will evolve over time depending on this learning and the company’s objectives for this product. This job never stops until it is time to retire a product at the end of its lifecycle.

Conclusion

The process of transforming new and untested ideas into usable goods is known as new product development. This product will be the brainchild of a company, giving them a competitive advantage and allowing them to monopolise the market. The general approach for New Product Development is to concentrate on innovating while providing value.

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Maintaining a successful development process necessitates ongoing effort; it will not be built overnight after a single decision is taken. Members of your organisation must share their vision and recognise the importance of the process to the company. Only with the help of others in your organisation and by availing of software product development services, will the concept of a fine-tuned development process become a reality and deliver tangible benefits.


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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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