Proper Emphasis on the Front End Pays Many Dividends
What may at first appear to be overemphasis on the "fuzzy front end" of the product development cycle is actually providing a solid base of knowledge and feeling of confidence which benefits all remaining stages of the cycle.
For example, it provides the basis for all elements of the marketing strategy: definition of target product-markets and matching “four P” definitions of product/service, promotion, place (channels of distribution), and pricing. And it provides the requirements to guide technical product/service development, production, and even financial and human resources that will ultimately be required.
Dr. E. Jerome McCarthy, a marketing thought leader and author of the best-selling collegiate marketing textbook, is one of the founders of the Planned Innovation Institute. As a major contributor to the Product-Market Analysis component, he has often remarked that “Market strategy plnning is easy with all the information provided by the Planned Innovation process.”
