Abstract

The function of new product marketing has become of major importance and concern to business management in response to consumer demand and also in response to expanding research and development activities. Some of the reasons for concern are illustrated in a recent survey which shows a high failure rate for new products, even in well-managed companies. In fact, a 60 per cent failure rate was experienced among new products that had progressed all the way through test marketing. These data apply to well-managed companies, hence, it seems safe to assume that this failure rate was sustained in the face of the best that modern management could supply in the form of systematic procedures for assembling, combining, and exploiting marketing information. Collecting such marketing information, usually in the form of elaborate, detailed manuals that are maintained along with checklists, formulae, electronic computer codes, checking, and verification procedures, can be expensive. The volume of marketing information can reach a point where full exploitation cannot reasonably be expected, even when electronic computing aids are available. Something more than volumes of data and high-speed computers are apparently required for analyzing and exploiting such data.