Business Plan For New Product Development

Students should develop their own New Product utilising the creative and marketing techniques discussed in class. Students need to present their work in a professional written format. 

The written Business Plan must be of an academic nature with full referencing and professional presentation. It should demonstrate significant research into the industry and product selected and should be of the standard of a professional business report with correct grammar, spelling and logical flow of argument. The report should be double spaced and approximately 2500-3000 words for an individual not including references or appendices.

Introduction

In order to stay competitive and to make a profit all the businesses across the globe regularly keep on innovating so as to find out, create as well as develop new products. New business ideas, as well as new products, adopt a process that helps in developing as well as effectively launching new products in the market (Stevens, 1997). New Product development (NPD) is an effective process which consists of many models that help in the development of new products (Cooper & Edgett,  2008).  Continuous improvement is considered to be a very vital strategy that helps in enhancing the organizational performance. Thus introducing timely NPD helps in gaining competitive advantage for the organizations (Nilsson-Witell, Antoni and Dahlgaard, 2005) . This report is a business plan for a company called 'pets-at-home' that shows and illustrates the process of development of a new product. The new product development for the business will analyze the process of idea generation. It will set the scene for the development of a new product that is the pets at home while analyzing the pets industry as well as the marketplace.

Overview

Pets at Home is the ultimate and unique company that offers a special pet shop experience acting as a real time paradise for both the pets as well as the pet owners. The company constantly focuses on new product development so as to make sure that profits are gained in the near future as well as successfully stay competitive in the pet supplies industry while gaining a bigger market share from its competitors. Pets at Home is a one of a kind pet store that was founded by Anthony Preston in 1991 and is the first store opened in Chester, UK (Pets at Home, 2014). They are very well known and recognized for their knowledgeable services as well as a real understanding of their customers as well as pets thus delivering outstanding pet performance. For searching for new product ideas it is highly imperative that it should fit with the product strategy that also gives guidelines for screening, the generation as well as evaluation of new product ideas. A framework of NPD procurers shows a perfect combination of principles of best practices as well as critical success factors. Therefore in the current environment of business organizations try to achieve a match between the customer expectations and needs with the product features (Meirovich, 2006).  Thus the major strategy adopted by Pets at Home for new product development would be to come up with an idea that is innovative as well as makes it a champion in the pet food and supplies sector (Pets at Home, 2014).

Competitors

In today's highly competitive environment in the markets, product innovation is very much appreciated as the major component that helps in achieving sustainable growth for most of the companies (McNally, Akdeniz and Calantone, 2011) . Pets at Home has several competitors in the UK like Pet Supermarket that delivers wide pet products range thus giving all their customers exceptional value as well as reliable services. They believe in creating an exciting and a fun experience for both the customer as well as they offer a huge and a complete selection connected with pet products. They also offer 100 percent satisfaction guarantee along with a free 7 days no quibble returns. The best part is that they always deliver on time otherwise the delivery is free. The store is very fast and easy to use and goods are dispatched the very same day from the store. The 5 Star guarantee provided by Pet Supermarket is their unique selling proposition that makes them stand out in the pet products industry (Pet Supermarket, 2014). It is already UK's number one pet shop that also has started delivering pet products online. 

The Custom Creature Coat Company is another strong competitor for 'Pets at Home', it's a family owned, UK-based business, whose main speciality is to develop practical, fashionable, beautiful and handmade products created using the specific materials that are selected by customers, and they make the coats for all kinds of pets. This is a specialty firm where they just make pet clothes and accessories handmade by the craftsmen. It provides Bespoke creation as well as standard creations for dog coats, cat coats or coats for various other animals and has a presence in various other countries as well. It is not a major competitor for pets at home because it just deals in pet clothing's (the Custom Creature Coat Company, 2013) .

Gorpets is another well-known pet products supplier that has years of experience and is the leading supplier of safe, beneficial, quality as well as ethical pet accessories across the UK. P&B Gora Ltd. was set up initially as a clothing manufacturer in 1974 that supplied to big stores like Debenhams, Harrods etc. Later in 1999 it started making dog beds, cat beds and started selling them to the pet shops in the West Midlands area. Then it gained huge success when t started making exclusive pet beds and thus Gor Pets was born. Later it further extended its range and came up with well though pet accessories like vinyl toys, tug toys or pet scratches etc. They are now leading supplier of pet beds and accessories in the UK and planning to expand in Europe as well and are now the single point of ordering dog and cat beds as well as accessories (Gorpets, 2013).