Adding Products and Services

New products improve people' lives, change markets, and affect theveryday world around us. From an organizational point of view, successful new products are essential for the survival of a firm. At the same time, an organization must recognize when it is time to withdraw a product from the market. As shown in Figure 1, this withdrawal may take place after some years of success in the marketplace. Alternatively, such product deletion may occur before the product is even launched. Sometimes, clear and straightforward reasons exist to explain why consumers do not accept a new product. Other times, a clear answer is missing. In this chapter, we highlight many of the key managerial decisions associated with adding and deleting products. We emphasize the important role of marketing research and market-based insights.

Figure 1 Sales of individual products and total sales