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From Experience: Avoiding Marketing's Best‐Of‐The‐Best Specification Trap
Author(s) -
Rosenau Milton D.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of product innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1540-5885
pISSN - 0737-6782
DOI - 10.1111/1540-5885.940300
Subject(s) - trap (plumbing) , product (mathematics) , computer science , new product development , competition (biology) , process (computing) , product design specification , best practice , marketing , business , product design , economics , engineering , management , programming language , ecology , geometry , mathematics , environmental engineering , biology
Too often companies fall into a trap when developing a list of performance specifications for a new product. Milton Rosenau calls this the best‐of‐the‐best specification trap. The problem arises whenever a company bases a specification on the combination of the best single features observed in available competitive products. When this happens, the new product's design is driven by competition and is not derived from a unique market insight. This may not provide the basis for a sustainable advantage. Sometimes, rumors of competitive improvements may even lead to sudden changes in the specification, creating delays in the development process. A far better goal is to develop a specification that responds to an unrecognized and unfilled user need, one that adds high value to users. His points are illustrated with several examples.