The Program

What are the differences between the Standard, Professional, and Enterprise versions of NewCast?

How accurate are the forecasts in NewCast?

Market Conditions

What is meant by market conditions?

How accurate do the market-condition inputs have to be?

Does NewCast help in identifying potential source of market information?

Product Life Cycle

What is the product life cycle?

What impact does the product life cycle have on my new product or service?

Pricing and Promotion

Why is pricing described in terms of above average, average, and below average?

How do I estimate the impact of my promotion policy against that of my competitors?

Question:	What are the differences between the Standard, Professional, and Enterprise versions of NewCast?
Answer:	The Standard version forecasts demand for a single new product or service. The Professional version adds breakeven analysis to the single product forecast. The Enterprise version provides forecasts and breakeven analysis for multiple products or services.

Question:

How accurate are the forecasts in NewCast?

Answer:

NewCast performs the calculations correctly, since most of them are based on formulas. However, the accuracy of the calculations is only as good as your inputs to the program. Since many of these inputs, particularly those related to market conditions, product life cycle, and pricing and promotion, are judgmental, you should repeat your analysis with changes to these inputs. As well, you should adjust your forecasts, using either the Unit or Percentage adjustments that are available to you. This will provide a range around your forecasts.

Question:	What is meant by market conditions?
Answer:	Market conditions refer to three facets of a market that help determine your expected market share. These facets are the size of the target market, the growth rate of the market, and the level of competition you will face.

Question:	How accurate do the market-condition inputs have to be?
Answer:	They should be a reasonable assessment of the results of your market research. No one expects your data on market size, growth rate, and level of competition to be perfectly accurate, but they have to be supportable in the face of people’s generally held beliefs about the market.

Question:	Does NewCast help in identifying potential source of market information?
Answer:	Yes, it does. The Memo Notes™ on the Market Conditions screen provides information on estimating the size of the market. The Help Screen provides a discussion on the type of data necessary to determine the market conditions.

Question:	What is the product life cycle?
Answer:	A product’s life cycle is the pattern of demand growth and decline that occurs from the introduction of a product or service to its obsolescence.

Question:

What impact does the product life cycle have on my new product or service?

Answer:

If you accept that products and services are born, they live, and they die, then the critical time is the length of the period in which the product/service lives; i.e., the length of the period of growth and maturity. Naturally, products or services with a short life cycle will have a short growth and maturity period. This will affect how long your product or service will have to reach breakeven and make a profit.

Question:

Why is pricing described in terms of above average, average, and below average?

Answer:

It is relative prices that count in the marketplace. It is your price relative to your competitor’s prices that influences demand. What you are being asked to do is to compare your selling price to that of the competition. Will your prices be above average (i.e., give an advantage to your competitors), average (i.e., be neutral in terms of your competitors), or below average (i.e., give you an advantage over your competitors)?

Question:	How do I estimate the impact of my promotion policy against that of my competitors?
Answer:	Obviously, most of this is a judgment call on your part. And it is highly subjective. Nevertheless, you need to demonstrate that (1) promotion policy is essential to the successful introduction of your new product or service and (2) that you are using your competitors as a yardstick (meter stick?) when evaluating your promotion policy.