Barriers Innovations Face When Entering New Markets
Bringing novel products to successful commercialization has significant product development challenges. In fact, often the barriers to entry into the complicated and complex agricultural markets are so great that new products fail.
R.G. Cooper estimates 48% of products fail in his article, “Identifying Industrial New Product Success.” In his book, “Winning at New Products” he says, “about half of all resources allocated to product development and commercialization in the U.S. goes to products that a firm cancels or that produce an inadequate financial return.”
Estimates of the percentage of products that fail may vary, but the point is, getting a product launched and sustained successfully is difficult. Why is that? Opinions differ depending on industry and sector, as well as individual experiences. Working with AgriBusiness Global, we gathered these opinions about what causes novel products to fail.
The three most important steps for an innovative crop production technology to go from the research/lab concept through commercialization are:
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- Effective product development. Generating applicable data needed to take products to market.
- Evaluating grower demand and market research.
- Involving growers in the development process.
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The three most difficult steps new technologies or innovations take on the pathway to commercialization were reported as:
54% Selecting the right markets to enter
52% Educating customers on benefits and proper use
44% Overcoming competitive pressures
WHY?
Respondents thought crop input products encounter these obstacles:
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- Getting grower acceptance: “Some people don’t put the time into the registration and development phase; They want to take shortcuts coming to market, generally making the product look suspicious.”
- Timing of market entry: “Technologies (from basic inputs to assessment methods, etc.) seem to be changing at a rate faster than the market can absorb.”
- Market saturation and fierce competition.
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WHY are agricultural input innovations unsuccessful in commercialization? They struggle with:
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- creating grower demand and buy-in,
- capital shortage and investment chain issues, and
- market adaptability and access.
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Grower education and communication, as well as lack of field testing and proven performance were the top two answers for why respondents think it can be difficult to bring crop input products from the idea phase to use in the field.
Of the survey respondents, 65% represented a manufacturing company, 20% a formulator, 8% distributor and 7% other.
To discuss how to overcome these barriers, call AgriThority for product development and market access support. Our experts want to listen to your needs, lead the development process and deliver results.
Call or email Fred Tennant or Dr. Gloverson Moro for a consultation: +1-816-891-0916 or info@agrithority.com.