CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

4 September 2009

CIMdata News

Poll Results for Factors Impacting Product Success

In CIMdata’s latest opinion poll, participants were asked to indicate how different factors impact product success. The following chart shows the percentage of respondents rating an item either highest impact (5) or second-highest impact (4).

The results show that bringing a completely new product or significantly improving an existing product can have the most impact on the success of the product in the market. It also illustrates the importance of good service and support on customer satisfaction. Interestingly, lower cost and longer service life, while important, were considered less an impact on success. This would indicate that respondents believe that customers are willing to pay more for new and improved products. This has been true in the past when a first-to-market product (or significantly improved product) has been able to command premium pricing until the competition can catch up. Green/sustainable design is considered less important than other factors, but CIMdata thinks it will grow in importance in the coming years.

When asked who sets priorities for new product design, customer requirements were most important. The following figure shows that after customer requirements, sales and marketing, and design and engineering have an equal role in setting product design priorities. It is interesting to note that reacting to competition was considered less important and than sales and marketing, or design and engineering. However, requirements and priorities from those two groups often reflect competitive factors, e.g., sales and marketing requesting a product feature already available in their competition.

Corporate management was rated the least important when compared to the other factors in the poll; however, many of their priorities may have already been included in sales and marketing requests. The bottom line is that creating new and improved products that meet or exceed customer expectations and requirements is still the best path to success in today’s highly competitive markets.

NOTE: The results of these polls are anecdotal, not scientific.
If you have a suggestion for a poll you'd like to see contact us at info@cimdata.com.

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