Product development costs diluted

Firms could save a fortune using a new tool that can monitor the sales successes and failures of new products and established brands, says market researcher Mintel.

A product developer may come up with what sounds like a great idea, but in reality it may not work, says Alistair Vince, product director for the Mintel Global New Products Database. The tool, known as GNPD IRIS, will let manufacturers gauge the product's potential in specific markets by providing sales data in user-friendly graph formats, he says.

"It gives users the opportunity to remove rubbish concepts from the innovation funnel ... it's a process that would cost thousands and thosands of pounds to do manually." In fact, the tool could shrink development costs by up to 80%, according to joint creators Mintel and enterprise market specialist IRI.

"Even if manufacturers were developing something entirely new, there would always be some characteristics that they had in common with existing products such as packaging or flavours, so you can still get a good idea of how well it might perform in your target market based on the performance of recent launches."