Idea Screening

Idea Screening

Following the idea generation stage, organisations must screen the ideas generated to detect which have the most potential (Toubia and Florès, 2007).  The Idea screening process involves evaluating the ideas and marking them against criteria to decide which are most compatible to the objectives the organisation wants to achieve (Business Dictionary, 2014).  During the screening process, the ideas already generated are questioned considering aspects such as the size of the target market, potential for generating profit and the product or service’s ability to meet the needs of the target market (Kotler and Armstrong, 2012).

Law (2014) considers screening important in realising poor ideas early and therefore identifying the good ideas to carry on to the concept development and testing stage.  Kotler and Keller (2012) support this and state that it is important to eliminate poor ideas early in order to avoid wasting resources such as time and money.

An example of how a sporting organisation could utilise the process of idea screening would be a Sports Centre.  If the centre wanted an event to promote a new format of fitness classes they were launching it would be important they chose the right type of event to showcase the class.  Different criteria they may consider would include what would gain the most attention within the target market, how affordable the event would be to run and feasibility.  By using the idea screening process effectively the centre would have a greater chance of the event being an effective promotional tool and having a positive impact.

A decision matrix is a tool which structures the decision making process and selects the best option by evaluating and rating each option against specific criteria which are selected and prioritised depending on importance (Koppala, 2007).  The weighting of the importance of the criteria is done on a scale of 1-3 with 1 being the lowest importance and 3 being the highest.  Each new format is then score 1-10 on how well it meets that criteria, 1 being the lowest rating and 10 the highest. 

 

Decision Matrix for a new format of Sport

 

This matrix clearly identifies and scores the three new format of sport ideas generated in the last stage and rates them based on five different criteria.  These criteria are aspects which need to be considered when deciding which format is viable to continue developing and the weighting shows the varying importance of all aspects.  

The decision matrix for idea screening has therefore aided the decision making process and identified that ‘Gymathlon’ would be the best idea to take forward to the next new product development stage.  This decision highlights the importance of weighting of criteria as although Gymathlon would require the most investment, it scores higher in more important criteria such as being easier to implement than new formats of existing sports and offering superior value to consumers.

Appendix A – Definitions of Criteria

Criteria	Definition
Longevity	Could the new format grow and have a long life?
Superior Value	Will the new format offer superior value for consumers to current formats?
Ease of Implementation	How easy would it be for the new format to be implemented?
Potential Market Size	How large is the potential market for the new sport format?
Necessary Investment	How much money would need to be invested to implement the new format into sport?

References

Business Dictionary (2014) idea screening. Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/idea-screening.html#ixzz3JPIYxtUO (Accessed: 18 November 2014).

Canice Consulting (2013) 4.3 Idea Screening. Available at: http://www.slmsc-project.eu/en/?page_id=2142 (Accessed: 18 November 2014).

Koppala, G. (2007) Project and Operations Management. Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_Cx7XFW-yjsC&pg=PA77&dq=DECISION+MATRIX&hl=en&sa=X&ei=57xtVJX8E4XGsQSwu4LYCA&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=DECISION%20MATRIX&f=false (Downloaded: 18 November 2014).

Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2012) Principles of Marketing. 14th Edn. London: Pearson Education.

Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. (2012) A Framework for Marketing Management. 5th Edn. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Law, J. (2014) A Dictionary of Business and Management. Oxford University Press.

Toubia, O.& Florès, L. (2007) ‘Adaptive Idea Screening Using Consumers’, Marketing Science, 26(3), pp. 342-360.