Since the October 1995 launch of the product, retail sales have been robust. The company's aim for the product in its first six months was to generate awareness and interest in the product through television and print advertising. At this juncture, the company reports that the television ads researched extremely well and that persuasion scores were among the highest ever measured by the company employed to carry out that research. Sales were higher than anticipated and growing rapidly. Much of the Portables success can be traced to the way in which Hart's team moved from concept to reality.
Many companies try to skip a step or two when it comes to new-product development.
They don't speak to customers up front, or they don't execute the development process as well as they initiated it. But Corning seems to have done the right thing from start to finish.