In the May issue of SPC, Aran Puri advocated the role of R&D in getting a product to market. Now its the turn of marketing and new product development
Marketing and new product development (NPD) plays a vital role in the new product concept, design and launch. Market leaders and highly successful companies are all marketing led, or driven. L’Oréal for example, one of the most successful companies in the world, owes its success to its prolific NPD and launch programme. Every six months new innovative products accompanied by massive imaginative advertising hit the shelves. On the other hand there are examples of well known companies with excellent R&D and marketing departments who have not made an equivalent impact on the market.
My last article provoked some interesting and impassioned comments from friends in marketing and NPD. They argued that they are not being unreasonable if they are very demanding when dealing with their R&D departments. They are under immense pressure from their companies to launch successful products and achieve turnover targets. It’s hard enough competing with other highly creative companies without having to deal with the reservations of their R&D departments when they are being extremely cautious and conservative.
They want R&D to realise that without effective marketing even their finest creation can’t be sold. They want to see a partnership where R&D is supporting them unreservedly to launch highly innovative new successful products into the market. They want to see an R&D that relates more effectively to the needs of the market and their company. They expect R&D departments not only to be positively active when approached but proactive in predicting and being prepared for market direction and new product launch trends from competitors at short notice.
Let’s examine the areas where marketing and NPD claim they have problems in dealing with R&D.
1. Project timing
This is the biggest gripe! They claim that R&D are never fast enough. They want to see a product ready in three months and R&D want 12 months to develop a product. They say R&D quote a host of excuses... ok reasons. Why don’t R&D discover ways to complete projects much more quickly?
2. Risk taking
They claim R&D don’t want to take any risks and always quote the safest option.
3. Bureaucratic
R&D are very bureaucratic and so overcautious that they are a pain to work with!
4. Relationship
Marketing want R&D to be proactive, give positive support and take the lead to inspire them as an equal member of an inter-disciplinary NPD team... someone who really understands their needs by presenting extraordinary ideas.
R&D when challenged say that the above comments are very unreasonable, show a total lack of understanding of what they really do and are viewed through a prism of individual prejudice underrating the value of their scientific endeavours. They claim that marketing are a law unto themselves and give them very little market feedback after the product launch.
Bringing new products quickly to the market remains a key requirement for marketing. Companies have developed and refined their existing strategies to make that happen. However, in this fast moving environment of ever increasing public appetite for newer products, this can never be fast enough. Development of totally new revolutionary strategies are called for. I have many ideas in this direction and have spoken about these in the past but will deal with them in a future column.
Another challenge for the marketing and NPD departments when dealing with R&D departments is the issue of personality and interaction. Marketing departments by nature tend to attract younger creative people and new staff turnover which brings new ideas. This is a vital part of its make-up. R&D personnel on the other hand, educated in their specialist disciplines, tend to stay longer in their positions. Conflicts of personality occur when R&D see a younger person often having served less time in the company making demands which they do not agree with or have difficulty satisfying. I advise all companies to recognise this problem as a genuine issue which impedes creativity and NPD and address it head on, with team building supported by specialist professional counselling for example.
Marketing and NPD departments and R&D all have a common purpose: to put successful winners on the market. But how does this actually happen? Let’s look at some winners in case studies involving products, companies and personalities.
Products
Regenerist (P&G) – Olay’s anti-ageing line is an example of a global blockbuster product that owes it’s origin to a very creative R&D department and a technological breakthrough by a raw material company. Marketing and NPD departments correctly recognised the enormous potential of this product and creative marketing using infomercials did the rest.
Protect & Perfect (Boots) – Here is another example of a potential global blockbuster product that owes its origin to a very clever R&D team. But the product really owes its success to the innovative and creative way its marketing and NPD departments made use of TV endorsement in a programme featuring an independent dermatologist, followed by imaginative marketing.
Companies
L’Oréal is one the most successful marketing companies in the world. Its new products are not always the latest breakthroughs in cosmetic science and technology but they are marketed with flair and creativity par excellence. Its competitors such as Procter & Gamble, sometimes armed with better technology, struggle to do the same.
Personalities
In all my working life I have never met a more talented, instinctive marketer than Anita Roddick. I had the privilege of working with her and seeing her in action when I was head of R&D at The Body Shop. She looked at dozens of concepts from R&D and picked one, turned it on its head and created a winner. Its latest blockbuster, Body Butters, is a good R&D formula which owes its success to the marketing genius in designing a concept that scored a hit with the public.
There have been others. Lets not forget Estée Lauder, Coco Chanel and many more whose outstanding role has never been publicly acknowledged.
Basically there is no magic formula. The only way to launch a successful new product development is a joint endeavour by marketing and R&D departments, each understanding, recognising and working off the talents and strengths of the other... just like a good marriage.
To conclude on a positive note, when I was researching for this column a great many good and warm comments were made by both sides singling out colleagues on the other side as being great to work with, despite the issues outlined here.
Let’s not forget that many other departments and other key collaborators, such as raw material suppliers, who are vital to the launch of a successful product. They play a very important role. They too have specific needs and face their own challenges, more of which in my next column.
