The Management of Product Development (A)
Product Design and Marketing (B)
(MKTG-464-A & B)

Faculty

James Gerard Conley, Clinical Professor of Technology, Technology Industry Management
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Most recently offered:

Spring 2010

Course overview:

The Management of Product Development

New product design drives healthy companies. That's why they're healthy. They allow organizations to differentiate from their competition, they stimulate growth, they are sensitive to changing consumer needs and they assure an enterprise a strategic competitive advantage. But if everyone understands that basic concept and need for successful new products, why is that some companies consistently get it right, while others fall on their face? Why is it that within your own organization you can find some great historical successes, but it is even easier to find many more failures? There is a methodology that is driven by a structured process to allow surety and greater success in the development of new products. This course teaches that process and should be mandatory for everyone that may ever find themselves in the role of Product Manager, assuming that role includes the development of new products. Areas of study include an overview of design and development including distinguishing factors for successful products, organizational structure for success, organizing the project into the appropriate phases and gates with go/no-go criteria and developing a proposal format. The format will be from a consulting point of view but will also be presented to assure the manager a structure when working within your own organization. You will also learn a basic knowledge of manufacturing techniques in order to more clearly speak and understand the language when working with your engineers, industrial designers and production people. The manufacturing overview is critical to anyone with a marketing or financial background, recognizing you may find your future in a manufacturing based organization or will have to deal with manufacturers. This mini course is not intended to assure the manager proficiency as a designer, but rather to allow the manager to understand and manage the process of design and development in an efficient and professional manner.

Product Design and Marketing

This minicourse explores the role of product design in marketing. Specifically, the course examines the target customers’ emotional response to the design of products and packaging. Students will be introduced to tools — including “neuromarketing” and semiotics — for evaluating product designs and corresponding emotions, and will learn about the role of product/packaging design in building brand equity. Finally, the course will review the role of product/packaging equities such as intellectual property in building and sustaining the advantages of product design.

Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management