What product characteristics do consumers think are important in a new product? What types of service components do they demand? Most important, how do marketers know how to develop successful new products? This miniproject is designed to let you make some of these decisions.

1. Create (in your mind) a new product item that might be of interest to college students such as yourself. Develop a written description and possibly a drawing of this new product.

2. Show this new product description to a number of your fellow students who might be users of the product. Ask them to tell you what they think of the product. Some of the questions you might ask them are the following:

• What is your overall opinion of the new product?

• What basic benefits would you expect to receive from the product?

• What about the physical characteristics of the product? What do you like? Dislike? What would you add? Delete? Change?

• What do you like (or would you like) in the way of product packaging?

• What sort of services would you expect to receive with the product?

• Do you think you would try the product? How could marketers influence you to buy the product? Develop a summary based on what you found. Include your recommendations for changes in the product and your beliefs about the potential success of the new product.