ABSTRACT
More than ever before, today’s business environment is rapidly changing than it was some decades ago. This is largely due to increasing technological advancement and globalization. Therefore to survive and stay competitive, industry players must give priority to new product development (NPD) and innovation. Many new products witness high failure rates. About 40% of new products are estimated to fail at launch, even after all the development and testing work; out of every 7–10 new-product concepts, only one is a commercial success; and only 13% of firms report that their total new product efforts achieve their annual profit objectives. In order to stay successful in the face of maturing products, companies have to obtain new ones by a carefully executed new product development process. Test marketing has given management the information needed to make the final decision: launch or do not launch the new product. The final stage in the NPD process is commercialization.
