New Product Development

New Product Development Research

We regularly conduct research among a client’s target customers to see whether a proposed brand or product extension enhances their share of the market and thereby drive sales and profits or whether there is a risk of it cannibalising existing sales.

This can be achieved using a variety of techniques with varying degrees of sophistication. At its most simple it could be a straight question such as ‘if you could buy this, would it be as well as or instead of the current product’.

TURF Analysis
However, if the new product would be placed in to a more complex environment we might recommend conducting a TURF Analysis or Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency Analysis, which is a research methodology that is used to best determine market potential across a number of factors which are considered independently. The result from TURF analysis is an optimised product offering with market reach indicators.

An example of TURF analysis would be if a shop only has the resources to stock two flavours of ice cream. It knows the two most popular flavours are chocolate and vanilla. Crucially it knows that there is a big overlap – those who like chocolate tend to also like vanilla. It therefore needs to choose which flavour combination would satisfy the greatest proportion of its customers, and with thousands of different ice cream flavour combinations a TURF analysis can give insight into the mix of flavours with the greatest market share, which may not necessarily be the two most popular flavours.