E-Marketing Professionals

Product Screening
After the firm identifies potential products, it must screen them. In product screening, poor, unsuitable, or otherwise unattractive ideas are weeded out from further actions. Today, many companies use a new-product screening checklist for preliminary evaluation. In it, firms list the new-product attributes considered most important and compare each idea with those attributes. The checklist is standardized and allows ideas to be compared.See example of screening checklist below.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NEW PRODUCTS
Profit potential
Existing competition
Potential competition
Size of market
Level of investment
Patentability
Level of risk

MARKETING CHARACTERISTICS OF NEW PRODUCTS
Fit with marketing capabilities
Effect on existing products (brands)
Appeal to current consumer markets
Potential length of product life cycle
Existence of differential advantage
Impact on image
Resistance to seasonal factors

PRODUCTION CHARACTERISTICS OF NEW PRODUCTS
Fit with production capabilities
Length of time to commercialization
Ease of product manufacture
Availability of labor and material resources
Ability to produce at competitive prices