To develop new products and services efficiently, organizations go through a process to ensure that their products are ready for market. This process is meant to evaluate the interest in a product and helps increase the chances of success within the marketplace. Hope Springs Water Co. is using this process to identify opportunities to develop new complementary offerings to its bottled water. As Xui Li and her marketing team look for product-expansion opportunities, they are approached by a supplier who would like them to distribute a natural flavoring additive. Before they agree to distribute the new product, they need to ensure interest within the marketplace and that preliminary sales data support an expensive, national launch. By using the new-product development process, Hope Springs can make decisions on hard data and a structured process instead of guessing whether this new additive will be successful within the marketplace.

The new-product development process is a set of stages that an organization goes through to identify opportunities and convert them into profitable products or services. From idea generation and screening/evaluation to market testing and commercialization, the process increases the chances of new-product success within the marketplace.

When Hope Springs Water Co. was looking to complete the phase, the company could have leveraged internal research, requested customer input, conducted a competitive analysis or sought collaboration with another organization.

(A) market testing
(B) development
(C) screening and evaluation
(D) idea generation

e. commercialization