Research Services

Product Development

Maintaining a robust new product development pipeline is a critical business objective for many organizations.  Ensuring that these new products receive a favorable reception in the marketplace requires sound consultation and timely customer input throughout the development process.

National Analysts Worldwide offers a systematic, disciplined and customer-driven approach to product development research that includes a complete suite of product development research services.

  • Qualitative concept evolution and screening process that explores unmet needs and vets candidate concepts.
  • Powerful techniques for optimizing product configuration, including conjoint analysis methodologies and market simulators that yield reliable market size, value, and product adoption estimates.
  • Positioning assessments to identify the benefit proposition that will resonate with prospective customers and maximize purchase interest.
  • Portfolio management analysis to chart line extension opportunities, assess the potential for product overlap and sales cannibalization, delineate discrete positionings for portfolio products, and optimize profitability.
  • Product adoption and performance tracking.

Having helped clients bring many hundreds of innovative products to market (from cellular technology to cutting edge cancer drugs, lite beer to breakthrough surgical techniques), National Analysts Worldwide is guiding the next generation of products to market through a disciplined process that helps avoid mis-steps and maximize the commercial success of product development initiatives.  Our NAscence Group specializes in nurturing next-generation pharmaceutical products and emerging biotechnologies – support that requires experience in the commercialization process and command of the market research tool kit.

Concept Evolution and Screening

National Analysts Worldwide offers our clients a disciplined and programmatic approach to product research and development -- whether the products are discovered, engineered, or simply adapted and positioned to better align with customer needs. Our research service suite spans the gamut of product development and testing activities, from qualitative insight research to multi-stage product development and configuration exercises, market forecasting, launch monitoring, and follow-up tracking.

To identify potential new product/service opportunities, we work with clients in the early stages of the development process to review existing information regarding customer needs/interests, competitor activities, and market trends.  When additional insights are needed, we often facilitate internal ideation sessions or exploratory qualitative research among prospective customers to identify possible opportunities.

Once a candidate product or set of products has been identified, we engage in further qualitative investigations with prospective purchasers to gauge market interest, amplify out concepts, and obtain feedback to guide modifications that will enhance appeal. A range of qualitative techniques are used to stimulate customer self-awareness, candor, creativity, and drive for consensus in winnowing new ideas.

Optimizing Product Configuration

Successful and cost-effective product development requires an understanding of customer values and tradeoffs, and the ability to predict the impact that even subtle changes in configuration can have on market reception and perceived price-value.  National Analysts Worldwide offers a product optimization system that simulates market response and prioritizes opportunities based on revenue, penetration, share, profitability objectives or constrained combinations (such as maximizing profitability while ensuring minimum share targets are met).

We use a variety of quantitative research techniques, often incorporating trade-off or conjoint exercises to support the optimization process.  Advanced modeling techniques are used to create simulation software that estimates the relative contribution of product functions, features and price points on purchase decisions using our Farsight Suite of forecasting techniques and service offerings.  Optimization algorithms isolate the candidate configurations that are most likely to maximize share or penetration while cost information and financial considerations are incorporated into our models to enable clients to estimate bottom-line financial implications.  For each candidate configuration, the types of customers and/or prospects most likely to purchase the product can be profiled.

Product configuration optimizers are designed with the flexibility to allow product developers to specify:

  • optimize criteria, e.g., maximizing revenue or margin for a market segment or the market as a whole
  • constraints, e.g., not allowing share to drop beyond a threshold while maximizing revenue
  • offer parameters, such as the available product options, price points, and maximum volume sales (capacity limit)
  • competitive offers

Output reports show the optimal product configuration based on the identified criteria, and provide estimates of the expected revenue, margin, share, and penetration outcomes.

Portfolio Management

For established companies, product and service-offering development activities rarely take place in a vacuum.   Marketers are faced with the need to understand potential new product demand in the context of their broader portfolio, where the possibility of product overlap and cannibalization of products are very real.  Teams charged with product development need a holistic framework for evaluating decisions in the context of broader portfolio management objectives.

National Analysts Worldwide arms marketers with reliable and important portfolio decisions. Using advanced techniques that typically incorporate choice-based models, product portfolio optimization simulators allow managers to estimate the impact of product line extensions (or edits) on sales across the portfolio.  Not only are cannibalization effects estimated, but profiles can be developed to pinpoint customers most prone to shift purchasing patterns in response to the envisioned line changes.  Evaluation of alternate configurations and price points helps product managers identify the product portfolio configuration that is optimal for their market.

For more information on National Analysts Worldwide, please e-mail us or call (215) 496-6800.