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Seeking Market Insights for New Product Development? Try Social Listening
Posted: March 12, 2020Social listening — analyzing what consumers say on social media — is a method typically used in consumer-facing sectors that enable businesses to learn about the opinions customers hold about particular products. What is not yet widely realized is just how much this approach can inform and fuel new product development (NPD). By gaining actionable insights in real-time, without incurring the high cost of more conventional practices, like focus groups and research reports, companies that engage in social listening can gain a competitive advantage.
Best Front-End Practices for Ensuring Success in New Product Development
Posted: March 5, 2020When New Product Development (NPD) fails, it's often in either the last or commercial stage of the development process. However, these late-stage failures can most often be traced to the beginning stage or the front end of NPD. The front end begins when an organization recognizes that an opportunity lies within an idea and ends with the approval or disapproval of a proposed project. More than any other phase of the product development process, the front end exhibits a dynamic and interactive nature.
New Product Development and the Changing Consumer Landscape
Posted: February 20, 2020According to a recent report by Deloitte on consumer behavior, the consumer has not changed in many of the ways popularly believed and commonly reported. To be clear, the consumer is changing. But these changes are primarily driven by economic and market conditions rather than by what might appear to be fundamental changes to consumers’ psychological makeup.
At Pivot International, we're a global single-source leader that understands that successful product development depends on an integrated understanding of the dynamic demographic factors that generate the unique needs, cultural biases, and purchase decisions of today's changing consumer.
4 Ways Top Manufacturing Companies are Building Digital Muscle
Posted: February 13, 2020From ongoing constraints due to trade uncertainties to difficulty attracting and retaining talent, the U.S. manufacturing industry has seen a year of heightened challenge. And although this past year saw the expansion in the U.S. economy become the longest in history, the manufacturing sector has shown signs of contraction in current months. According to Deloitte, projections for GDP growth levels reflect recent trends, adjusting from 3.7% down to 2.7% for 2019 and 2% down to 1.3% for 2020.
However, amidst continued volatility in prices and policy decisions and diminished productivity, the industry is working to regain its footing. And digital “muscle building” is one of the emerging trends of this progression. Building digital muscle refers to the adoption and deployment of innovative digital technologies that build both agility and scalability.
3 Design Trends That are Driving Innovation in Product Development and Business Operations Alike
Posted: February 5, 2020It's no secret that products are continually evolving, reflecting changes in consumer demand and the techno-economic landscape. But the field of design itself is growing, and designers are thinking about design differently. They're reconceiving their roles, taking a more interdisciplinary approach, and driving the broader application of design-thinking to deliver next-level results.
At Pivot International, we're a global single-source product development partner that leverages the world's top design talent and advanced technology to help our customers successfully bring new products to market. With nearly half a century of experience in product design, development, manufacturing, and supply chain management, we're at the leading edge of the seismic shifts in design that are shaping the industry and the future.
Top Products from CES 2020: Choosing the Right EMS Partner
Posted: January 30, 2020As a leading single-source electronics manufacturing services (EMS) partner with state-of-the-art surface mount technology (SMT), we at Pivot International are behind some of the most innovative trends for the consumer market. Every year we watch with pride as our clients attend CES to showcase the innovations we've partnered with them to bring to market.
Top trends and popular products of CES 2020 proved to be those that delivered human-centric care through applications in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and robotics. Below is a list of our favorites, including a product we played a central role in developing that garnered a prestigious CES Innovation Award.
Developing a Niche Product? Here’s How to Expand Into New Markets
Posted: January 23, 2020A strong business case can be made for creating a product designed for a single vertical. After all, serving a niche market allows companies to maintain a tight focus on specialized products aimed at an exclusive market demographic. But because these markets are small, the danger of rapid market saturation is increased. Furthermore, niche products can sometimes be especially challenging to differentiate from their competitors. This danger can be offset by design innovations, as well as expansion into new markets.
5 Criteria for Success in New Product Development
Posted: January 16, 2020Bringing a new product to market has a lot in common with constructing a new house. Building a home requires high levels of planning and coordination between general contractors and experienced framers, plumbers, painters, electricians, interior designers, and so forth. So too does new product development require high levels of planning and coordination between top management and their product design, development, manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain partners.
With 47 years of experience, we’ve crafted a working blueprint of what it takes to create award-winning innovations. Here's a brief overview of some of the key success criteria required for launching a new product.
3 Indispensable Practices for New Product Development
Posted: January 9, 2020Successfully launching a new product requires a design, development, and production partner with a proven track record, systematic methods, and a seamless end-to-end process. This includes everything from proof-of-concept to regulatory compliance to prototyping to production to distribution. At Pivot International, we know this firsthand, as we're behind multiple award-winning consumer and industrial products. As a global single-source partner, we help businesses create successful products and effectively scale in the Age of Industry 4.0.
New Advances Expand Industrial Touch Screen Opportunities
Posted: January 1, 2020Touch screens are exhibiting higher levels of performance and reliability at a lower cost. One reason for this is that indium tin oxide (ITO) is beginning to be replaced by newer materials.
One reason this change is occurring is due to the trend of integrating touch into the LCD panel, rather than manufacturing a clear touch screen overlay. This results in a thinner, lighter touch screen, with optical benefits as well.
