1.0Introduction
Chocoberry is a company that imports and processes cocoa beans from countries in West Africa. The company sells its chocolate to manufacturers in America and Europe. Of late there have been numerous transformations in the market because most customers want healthy food. CB intends to take advantage of the transformations by introducing new product ideas. This paper discusses the process of idea generation and idea evaluation for CB.
2.0 Idea Generation
2.1 Methods of Idea Generation
The first method that can be used to generate the ideas is brainstorming the product issues. Brainstorming entails working with the existing teams in an organization to come up with viable product ideas. Also, the research and development process can help in adapting the products by incorporating the feedbacks from the customers and the market. Markedly, the review of quality assurance processes helps in noting the issues in a company's products and identifying potential gaps that can be used to address the quality gaps. Also, reviewing the customers' complaint records can help organization ideas on how to improve the existing products (Creusen, Hultink & Eling, 2013).
2.2The recommended method for CB situation
An ideal method in CB's situation is brainstorming because it will enable the sales staff to offer the feedbacks they receive from customers daily. The feedbacks offer useful insights about the needs of the customers. In addition to that, brainstorming will help CB to capture product observations, ideas and feedbacks from various team members and this will yield a detailed and reliable business idea. Furthermore, brainstorming will result in ideas that unique and innovative (Henriksen & Røstad, 2013).
2.3 Ideation
The sales and marketing departments will be responsible for the performance of the ideation because they have the latest knowledge concerning the needs and tastes of the customers as far as the chocolate products are concerned. The people in these departments interact with customers on a daily basis thus; will give ideas that meet the customers' expectations (Creusen, Hultink & Eling, 2013).
2.4 The process of generating concepts from the ideas
First and foremost, all the teams in the organization will be invited to give new ideas, and secondly, customers will be involved in the generation of ideas. Thirdly, the needs that are not expressed by customers will be identified and fourthly, information will be sought from new customer groups. Fifthly, suppliers will be involved in the innovation of new products, and lastly, the idea-creation methods will be benchmarked (Henriksen & Røstad, 2013).
3.0 Idea Evaluation
3.1 The criteria for assessing and ranking the ideas
Firstly, the value propositions for all the ideas will be assessed then the target market of the products will be determined. The revenue models for all the ideas will be established, and their unique selling positions will be ascertained as well. The barriers to the implementation of the ideas will be outlined then a competitive analysis will be carried out to determine their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the anticipated market size and market growth associated with each idea will be used to rank the ideas as well (Carpenter, Lyon & Hasdell, 2012).
3.2 Conducting the evaluation
The marketing, production and sales department will conduct the evaluation because they have the required expertise. Furthermore, the people in these departments will offer viable ideas on how the concept will be improved further. The evaluation will be conducted after carrying out primary and secondary research (Carpenter, Lyon, & Hasdell, 2012).
3.3 The evaluative criteria for selecting the concepts for further development
The RAMP model will be used to select concepts that will be developed further. The letter R in the model stands for Return. The return on the investment will be assessed by looking at the profitability of the ideas, the initial investment that will be a need and the time it will take for the ideas to break even. A stands for advantages, and the advantages will be ascertained by determining the cost structures, entry barriers and channels of distribution. M represents market and the aspects of the market that will be evaluated include pricing, target market and the market need. Lastly, P represents potential and the aspects of potential that will analyse include risk versus reward, the timing and the goal fit (Henriksen & Røstad, 2013).
3.4 Conducting the concept evaluation
The concept evaluation should be conducted a team with the relevant expertise. In the case of CB, it should be conducted by the production department and the marketing department. The tools that will be used to conduct the concept evaluation include pass-fail evaluation, SWOT analysis and the evaluation matrix. The pass-fail evaluation tool is useful in cases where the number of ideas to be reviewed large. The pass-fail evaluation brings the pool to levels that are manageable. On the other hand, the evaluation criteria compare an idea with criteria that is pre-determined. The ideas are ranked depending on how they meet the criteria. Accordingly, the evaluation matrix facilitates a comparative review of ideas. The SWOT framework analyses the Threat Opportunities, strengths and weakness of a business idea. The SWOT analysis offers an all rounded review of the product idea (Carpenter, Lyon & Hasdell, 2012).
4.0 Conclusion
In a nutshell, CB will generate a new product idea through brainstorming. After the generation of the ideas, they are evaluated to maximize on those with the greatest potential and to reduce the chances if rejecting ideas that are excellent. The methods that will be used in the evaluation of the idea include pass-fail evaluation, SWOT tool and the evaluation matrix.
References
Carpenter, R. P., Lyon, D. H., & Hasdell, T. A. (2012). Guidelines for sensory analysis in food product development and quality control. Springer Science & Business Media.
Creusen, M., Hultink, E. J., & Eling, K. (2013). Product development.International Journal of Market Research, 55(1).
Henriksen, B., & Røstad, C. C. (2013). Attacking the Critical Parts in Product Development. In Advances in Production Management Systems. Sustainable Production and Service Supply Chains (pp. 94-102). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
