THE HERB FARM REVISITED
New product development
With Sarah taking care of the company's restructure, management and planning, Lynn could focus on the research and development of new products for The Herb Farm range – the side of the business she feels most passionate about. Free from the day-to-day running of the business, Lynn aimed to successfully identify, formulate and launch three new market viable products per year.
The product development process
Lynn's first step is to create a list of potential new products. This is usually based on a combination of customer feedback and market research. Lynn also has a careful look at what her competitors are doing to see if there are any potential niches not covered by their products or if there is something she believes The Herb Farm can do better.
When two or three potential products are identified, the target market is established for each one. For example with the recent development of a new men's moisturiser, Lynn recognized that there was a niche market of men who were looking into going 'all natural' with their skin care products.
With the product and its market established, the new idea is presented to potential customers, followed by further surveys to ensure the product really is going to have a viable future in the market. If the new product idea gets a positive response, it gets the go ahead to begin testing and development. Normally it will take about 10 weeks of research to get to this 'go ahead' stage.
It's this next part of the process that Lynn enjoys most of all. Keeping customer feedback in mind, she looks at what the potential market wants when choosing the key ingredients.
"For the men's moisturiser it was a matter of looking at the fact that men shave every day and to identify any other special needs of men's skin. So I looked at the herbs that are beneficial for those needs and thought about what scents appealed particularly to men because these would be quite different to the usual floral ones."
A good starting point for the choice of ingredients for a new product is often to examine similar products already on the market. Lynn makes a spreadsheet of products that claim to be natural, and then narrows down some of their core ingredients.
"Even though most won't really be natural because of the preservatives and things, some key ingredients such as aloe vera and witch hazel keep popping up that fit our criteria of being totally natural, botanically based and New Zealand grown."
Lynn supplements this initial market exploration with more detailed research into new natural materials, and then starts experimenting with the different ingredients she's finally narrowed down for potential use. With the men's moisturiser, for example, she had to make sure that the consistency was going to work on men's skin. Once she has come up with a formula she thinks will work, she does an accurate product costing, including supplier and specifications sheets, to check that it will be financially feasible for production.
The product is then trialled for about two weeks on a group of ten people who fit the target market. Lynn prefers to use family and friends for this, as arranging specific focus groups can be an expensive process. Going from the 'go-ahead' stage to this 'product approval' stage takes about another 12 weeks.
"With the trials, you realise that you can never please everybody, but if the feedback is generally pretty positive you decide on a formula and say this is it. From there we'd look at finalising the packaging, labeling and pricing."
With the product finally ready, back-up material which includes product descriptions, shelf signage and launch material is produced before the new product finally hits the shelves. The overall development process for a product will take around six months in total.
"Although I've been doing this for over 20 years, it's a never-ending process of learning," says Lynn. "You've got your historical background knowledge, but you've also got the new research you can draw on as well."
