Examples for New-Product Development
We all enjoy teaching new-product development (NPD). There is a good framework to present and there are many interesting examples. This brief post is just to share a couple of examples that recently came across my reading list. You may find them useful when you cover new-product development (Chapter 9 in our textbook).
Nike Using NPD to Try to Get Back on Track
Nike has been struggling for the last few years. Now Nike is using its tallest-ever running shoe, the Vomero Premium, as both a product and a symbol of its bid to regain innovation leadership from upstarts like On and Hoka. Under CEO Elliott Hill, Nike is reorganizing around sport categories (like running and football), working more closely with factories, and launching a wave of new products—including a motor-powered footwear system, Aero-FIT cooling fabric, and temperature-regulating inflatable jackets—while also trying to repair relationships with retailers and refocus its storytelling on athletes. You can read the details in “Can the Tallest Running Shoe Out There Chart Path for Nike’s Comeback?” The Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2025).
From a new-product development (NPD) perspective, the key lesson is Nike’s move to radically shorten development cycles by using cross-functional teams and on-site prototyping with factory partners, cutting shoe development from about 18 months to 8. The Vomero Premium and “Mind Science” shoe base show how Nike blends deep user research (e.g., brain-wave studies, athlete testing) with rapid iteration, then scales successful technologies across multiple product lines (running shoes, soccer kits, streetwear). The article also highlights the final commercialization stage of NPD: success depends not just on novel technology, but on retail partnerships, brand positioning, and market storytelling that convince consumers to buy.
P&G Priotizing Innovation Over Discounts
As consumers become more cautious and deal-conscious, Procter & Gamble is choosing to compete through product innovation rather than price cuts. The company is rolling out upgraded or entirely new products. Examples include Tide’s Evo detergent line, improved Pampers diapers, and enhanced Olay body washes. These product categories are mature and highly competitive (a nice fit with your product life cycle discussion). Still, P&G believes these innovations justify modest price increases across its portfolio. Leadership argues that innovation builds long-term brand strength and market share, even if it takes longer than short-term discounts to show results. Stronger performance in China, where product innovation helped navigate a tough consumer environment, supports this strategy.
From a new-product development (NPD) perspective, P&G illustrates how firms use product improvements and premium innovations to differentiate when markets get more competitive. Rather than relying on promotions late in the commercialization stage, they reinvest earlier in the NPD process—ideation, concept testing, formulation changes, and product design—to create offerings that deliver better performance and command higher prices. Their approach shows how incremental innovations across mature categories (detergent, diapers, grooming, personal care) can refresh a portfolio and shift consumers to higher-value products, reinforcing the importance of continuous innovation cycles in sustaining competitive advantage.
Inventors Get Ideas From Nature
Previous editions of Essentials of Marketing included a “What’s Next?” box on biomimicry. The idea is that inventors could look to nature for new product ideas. The topic has (maybe unfortunately) been left on the cutting room floor. Yet a recent New York Times article had me thinking about it again. This article explores how inventors and designers are increasingly turning to nature for inspiration in creating new products—a field often called “biomimicry” or “bioinspiration.” It highlights examples such as robots that mimic water-striders, soft batteries based on biological structures, and materials engineered using patterns drawn from plant and animal evolution. The idea: by studying how living systems solved complex problems over millions of years, innovators can skip some of the trial-and-error in conventional product development.
In terms of the new-product development (NPD) process, the article aligns with the early stages—idea generation and screening. It shows how insight into nature can spark fresh product ideas (ideation), which can then be framed into a concept, prototyped, and iteratively improved. It underscores the benefit of looking beyond the existing market for inspiration: when companies borrow design principles from biology, they may uncover features such as durability, self-healing, or energy efficiency that give their new products a distinctive advantage in concept testing and differentiation.