By Dr S K Bhalla, Mentor Safe Labs
Competitive advantage , which can be achieved through innovation , research and development, is a part of the dynamic structure of a free market economy. It is clear that innovations must be tailored primarily to long term consumer trends and desires.
However as marketers , companies must remember that this is not the only aspect. Many innovations do not come directly from the market, but from technological work, research and development. Such innovations are created by researchers who invent new products that marketers and consumers have never imagined. Innovation is followed by the most important phase of the investigation seeing whether a new product makes sense to the consumer.
In marketing, there is a lot of discussion about life cycle and storage conditions requirement in connection with innovations and product development, though this may be some times counter productive also. Examining products life cycle may lead to a fatalistic attitude , since depending on the point in life cycle, mechanistic forecasts can actually bring about the downfall of a product.
