The Aspects Of New Food Product Development

To be profitable and try to still exist on the market, food companies are trying to create a new product, stated by Fuller (2011). Not all the Foods on restaurant menu have the same amount of sold, there must be a popular food and unpopular one. Every restaurant knows they cannot push all the foods to be sold equally. They can only identify the food that has a less amount of sold and changes it with the new food with an aim to make more variation on the menu and stabilize the food cost. According to Morrison (1996), the fact of menu engineering is build up in parallel to raising the availability cost-effective. Therefore menu engineering creates an opportunity for developing new food.

To create a new food or product require a talented person, deep research, adequate facilities, and money, said Fuller (2011). All those requirements are important for developing a new food product. Based on Queensland Government, new product development (NPD) is a process of bringing a new product from ideas into the marketplace. The new product it is mean the product that you create is original, never been in the market or existing product that has been modified. As Queensland Government said that NPD is a process, Otto and Wood (2003) are agree that the NPD process can be transferred into this structure.

So basically, in the first phase, an innovator needs to understand the opportunity in the market, what the trend is and customer needs. They need to analyzing and investigating precisely what customer want then afterward they can make a concept based on the information from investigation to determining what the product can do to fulfill customer needs and satisfaction. At the final phase, implement the concept into the marketplace by starting to produce the product, upselling the product and advertise it then the customer would be familiar.

According to Earle and Anderson (2001), food is a thing that human consumes for a daily basis to satisfied the physiological and physiological needs. Food also can have different perception between Food Company and customer. Food Company sees the food from basic functional which is like how the packaging looks like or how strong the brand is. On the other hand, consumer see the food as a set of benefits regarding it is tangible or intangible characters to their needs, wants and behavior. To create a food from raw ingredients until becoming a cooked food that consumer can eat need a process, it is called food system stated by Earle and Anderson (2001).

So it is like a journey of the food that where the ingredients were harvested then it goes to the supplier which supplier can distribute the fresh ingredients to the consumer products manufacturer or Food Service Company. If the manufacturer will distribute the materials to the supermarket, the consumer can buy it with the raw condition. While Food Company Service will distribute it to the restaurant which is the raw materials will be processed to become a cooked food then the consumer can directly consume it without a need to cook it anymore. According to Fuller (2011), new food product development has several phases. But people are misinterpretation with this phases which they said that research and development are dominant elements. In the development process, new information produces more informed decisions. For examples, standards of ingredients, design, packaging, and equipment to make a right decision. In developing a product, there is a stable process which conformable with targets, customers, and marketplace changes. Development is a movement from intangible product statement or idea to the tangible, added fuller (2011).

Furthermore, Kotler and Armstrong described 8 major steps in new food product development. They are illustrating idea generation as a systematic search for new product ideas. These steps will help to divide the objectives such as market share become realistic due to the detailed product. The reason why Kotler and Armstrong use this concept because a big number of ideas will invariable the outcomes, which inharmonious for further development then they can easy to differentiate the good ideas and poor ideas.

However, Urban and Hauser have a more simple view than Kotler and Armstrong and Fuller. They suggest the company should apply their 5 steps compared to other strategies because they realize that practically in making the decision, some steps will overlapping others. But the successful company, they can customize the steps according to their needs and capabilities. They categorize the steps into s trong sources of ideas and creative group processes are the methods of building new ideas that can improve the opportunity for company profit. Design phase means to asses, select and identify the ideas that have a big chance for success in the marketplace.

In the testing process, Urban and Hauser convince that product before consumer in the market that tests the full market mix, this is aim to determine which strategy would fit in the marketplace according to the product, advertisement, packaging and pricing. The fourth step, the company has a final decision to use which strategy in the market and ready to launch or introduce the product by always monitoring the upcoming problems and opportunities. The last phase is important than other phases because the company needs to identify the profitability chance of the product in the market by expanding the product line in accordance with the upcoming opportunity.

Urban and Hauser believe these steps are accurate and very structured by using discipline approaches than other theories in order to maximize new food product development. All those theories have strengths and weaknesses, the theories also have a same main concern which is to elevating company profit by maximizing the value and function of the product to the consumer in the marketplace. But to run the Author project of new food product development which is correlated with the business concept, the Author tries to combine Kotler and Armstrong & Urban and Hauser theories to become one theory that suitable for Author project.

Author sees that Urban and Hauser theory has a simple structure but directly thru to the point of developing a product. It also supported by life-cycle management phase which help the Author to expand the product by following the same pattern. On Kotler and Armstrong theory, the Author interested in the first phase of the theory that showed us about company objective as a reference point to develop the product of innovation. At the marketing development strategy phase also looks interesting because to market the product, Author need to identify the consumer needs and satisfaction which related to the function, packaging, pricing and testing of the product in the market. All the steps that Author has combined, hopefully help the Author to always make an innovation and become a pioneer which can encourage other company to create more innovation, Trott (2006).