New Product Development Under Channel Acceptance

Abstract

In channel structures characterized by a powerful retailer (e.g., Wal-Mart, Home Depot), the dominant retailer's acceptance of a manufacturer's new product often determines the success of the new offering. Focusing on a manufacturer in such a market, we develop an approach to positioning and pricing a new product that directly incorporates the retailer's acceptance criteria into the development process. Our method also accounts for the retailer's product assortment and the competing manufacturers' potential reactions in wholesale prices. Our method merges individual-level conjoint models of preference with game-theoretic models of retailer and manufacturer behavior that are specific to the institutional setting of the focal manufacturer. The application of our approach in the context of a new power tool development project undertaken by this manufacturer also highlights the potential of our approach to other analogous institutional settings.

Keywords: new product forecasting, product positioning, distribution channel, conjoint model, game theory, big-box retailers, retailer acceptance, Wal-Mart, Home Depot