GRA 6428 New Product Development and Service Innovation
GRA 6428 New Product Development and Service Innovation
This course is designed to expose students to the process of new product and service development and marketing's role in working with other functional areas such as R&D, finance, and manufacturing to develop products and services that customers want and need. Please note that references to "product" development issues below can also include service products.
The objective of the course is to train future marketing managers in the science of new product development, so that they can more effectively gather new ideas and turn them into profitable new products.
Students will gain skills in a variety of idea generation techniques, the stage-gate product development process, and the analysis of marketplace trends through the use of cases and article discussion.
The course will expose students to the factors that increase the odds that a new product will succeed, but also the reasons behind managerial mistakes that can cause new product failures.
The design of the course is meant to encourage discussion of the issues, theories and methods that are used in firms with the best new product development practices. The following topics will be covered:
- The New Product Development (NPD) Process and its implications for new product success.
- Innovation types and service innovation.
- Putting the Voice of the Customer into NPD: marketing research for large and small firms.
- Internal Marketing: product champions, resource procurement, and the political process in NPD.
- Organizing for NPD: cross-functional teams - interacting with other functional areas of the firm.
- Financial implications: estimating the costs and revenues from a new product.
- Branding and New Products: brand champions, design elements of the brand, and brand extensions.
- New Product Launch into the Market.
Students are expected to be well prepared for each discussion by reading the assigned literature and cases. Students will also be responsible for developing a new product proposal using the techniques discussed in class.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory, but it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided during class discussion and lectures.
This course and GRA 6440 Marketing Innovation Management both address various aspects of new product development and innovation management. Although learning goals and course substances intersect, the two courses offer differing theoretical approaches and practical applications, as well as teaching methods and assessments; further, GRA 6440 is taught in an intensive fashion whereas GRA 6428 follows the regular semester schedule. Students are only able to select one of these courses, and are advised to consult the entirety of the course descriptions before doing so.
The examination for this course has been changed starting academic year 23/24. It is not possible to resit the old version of the examination.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Disclaimer
Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.
| Assessments |
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Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 100 Grouping: Individual Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: New Product Development Proposal (15 pages or less). Each student is to take the role of a product/brand manager to develop a new product or service idea and present their analysis of it using techniques discussed in class for purposes of securing further resources for development. Exam code: GRA 64281 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
GRA 6428 has overlapping content with the following course: GRA 6440 Marketing Innovation Management. Students can only choose one of these specialisation electives.
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.