New Product Development Process for Success

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new product research process white paperRecently, the Ford Motor Company has been running television advertisements featuring Lincoln cars as an example of “when craft was King.” Edsel Ford is called out as an innovator in the original luxury auto market. In the ad, Edsel Ford is quoted as saying, “My father makes the most popular cars in the world, but I want to make the best cars in the world.”

Interesting, given that the name Edsel is nearly synonymous with product failure! Almost as much as the New Coke debacle, the Edsel has long been held out by marketing academics as a new product development process gone horribly wrong. Ford conducted a record-setting amount of marketing research in the design of the Edsel, only to have it be ignominiously retired within three years (1958 – 1960) at a loss of $350 million dollars (or $2.8 billion in 2015 dollars.)

If you want to learn more about marketing research for New Product Development – and how to avoid an Edsel in your career – download our new white papers:

Using Discrete Choice Analysis to Succeed at New Product Development: How NOT to Design an Edsel!

Marketing Research to Support the Stage Gate New Product Development Process

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Christian Wright

Christian Wright is the VP of Client Services at Infosurv. With a master’s in marketing research, he’s equipped to design actionable research that yields impactful insights and drives change.