6. Habit and Marketing Management

The product component addresses the actual attributes of the product or service. For the sake of simplicity, the role of habit as it relates to the product follows a life cycle approach and takes the perspective of the product manager. Throughout this chapter, we use the term product in its broadest sense to mean a product, service, or bundle of products and services. This includes web-based offerings and online services.

The first chapter cited a dismal statistic that as much as 80% of new products fail or radically underperform expectations. Based on the habit research covered previously, it is clear that for a new product to succeed in a highly competitive marketplace, it must either create a new habit or replace an old one. In the next three sections on product design, product development, and product launch, we look at how current best practices often inadvertently lead to bleak results. Then we show how new products will have a far better chance if they are designed, developed, and introduced based on creating habitual use.