| Course | MKT-3350 New Product Development and Marketing |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | Module 2 project part 1: opportunity identification and concept generation |
| Length | About 497 words, 4 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Thomas Edison State University |
| Program | B.S.B.A. in Marketing |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MKT 3350 Module 2
Composting Without a Backyard: Opportunity, Charter and Concepts for a New Kitchen Product
Student Name
B.S.B.A. in Marketing, Thomas Edison State University
MKT-3350: New Product Development and Marketing
Mentor Name
Month Day, Year
Composting Without a Backyard: Opportunity, Charter and Concepts for a New Kitchen Product
The Company and the Opportunity
Shore Home Goods is a composite housewares company that designs kitchen storage products and sells them through home goods retailers and online. Many New Jersey towns have begun collecting food scraps or encouraging composting, and the company's customers increasingly live in apartments. The opportunity is a product that lets apartment dwellers handle food scraps indoors without odor, pests or effort.
Product Innovation Charter
The textbook presents the charter as the bridge between strategy and new product work: it tells the team where to look and what not to do (Crawford & Di Benedetto, 2021).
| Element | Shore Home Goods composting project |
|---|---|
| Focus | Indoor food scrap products for households without yards |
| Goals | A product in retail within 18 months; 15 percent of category sales in its retailers within three years |
| Guidelines | Countertop size; no odor; price under $150; use the company's existing retail partners; avoid products requiring plumbing |
| What to protect | The brand's reputation for simple, durable kitchen products |
Finding Problems
The textbook recommends the problem-find-solve approach: find out what problems customers have, then generate solutions. I interviewed 20 apartment dwellers in Jersey City, New Brunswick and Hoboken who compost or want to. Griffin and Hauser (1993) found that interviews with 20 to 30 customers in a segment uncover most of the needs that would be found with many more, which supports a sample of this size. The most frequent problems were odor (17 of 20), fruit flies (14), the effort of carrying scraps to a drop-off site (12), limited counter space (11) and not knowing what can be composted (8).
Generating Concepts
Using problem analysis, I generated concepts aimed at the top problems. Using attribute listing, I varied attributes such as size, process and power. Five concepts resulted.
Concept B addresses the most problems but would be the most expensive and requires electricity. Concept A is simple and cheap but addresses fewer problems. The next module evaluates them. Henard and Szymanski (2001), pooling many studies of new product performance, identified product advantage and fit with customer needs as consistent predictors of success, which favors concepts built on real problems.
| Concept | Description | Problems addressed |
|---|---|---|
| A. Sealed bin with carbon filter | Countertop bin with a replaceable charcoal filter | Odor, flies |
| B. Electric dehydrator | Dries and grinds scraps overnight into a small volume | Odor, flies, volume, trips |
| C. Freezer caddy | Slim container that stores scraps in the freezer until drop-off | Odor, flies |
| D. Bokashi kit | Fermentation bucket with inoculated bran | Odor, volume |
| E. App-linked bin | Bin that tells the user what can be composted and when to empty it | Knowledge |
Conclusion
The opportunity is real and specific, the charter sets clear boundaries and five concepts address the problems apartment dwellers actually reported. Concept evaluation in Module 3 will narrow the choice. Each concept will be scored against the same criteria in the next part, so the choice rests on evidence rather than preference.
References
Crawford, C. M., & Di Benedetto, C. A. (2021). New products management (12th ed.). McGraw Hill.
Griffin, A., & Hauser, J. R. (1993). The voice of the customer. Marketing Science, 12(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.12.1.1
Henard, D. H., & Szymanski, D. M. (2001). Why some new products are more successful than others. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(3), 362-375. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.38.3.362.18861
Reading the MKT 3350 Module 2 assignment instructions
The new product development project, worth 49 percent of the grade across four parts and a final submission, is built from Module 2 through Module 5. Part 1 covers opportunity identification and concept generation. Expect to identify an opportunity, write a product innovation charter and generate several concepts using techniques from the textbook, such as problem-find-solve and attribute analysis. Collect some evidence from likely customers, even a handful of interviews, and show how each concept answers the problems they named. Choose a product category you can follow through development and launch. Write your charter before generating concepts, so it can rule out ideas that do not fit. Use a table to show which concepts address which problems.
How this MKT 3350 Module 2 example is built
The paper introduces the company and the opportunity. A table sets out a product innovation charter. A problem-finding section reports interviews, with counts of each problem and research supporting the sample size. A table presents five concepts and the problems each addresses. The text compares the strongest and simplest concepts, and the conclusion sets up concept evaluation in the next part. The interview counts make the problem ranking transparent, and the concept table shows how each idea maps to the problems. The comparison of the most ambitious and simplest concepts previews the trade-off the next part must settle. The charter's guidelines are specific enough to rule out some ideas. Its conclusion previews the evaluation to come.
Reading the MKT 3350 Module 2 grading rubric
Project parts are graded on thorough application of the textbook's methods, use of evidence and clear writing. Charters that include goals, guidelines and what to protect show understanding of strategic fit. Problem lists built from customer evidence, rather than the writer's assumptions, demonstrate the problem-find-solve approach. Several distinct concepts tied to specific problems show creativity disciplined by customer needs, and research on gathering customer needs strengthens the method. Mentors also credit projects that choose a product category the student can realistically follow through development and launch. Readable tables for the charter and concepts, with APA references, round out this first part. Clear charters earn credit.
MKT 3350 Module 2 help from the desk
Students lose points by starting from a solution rather than a customer problem, by writing a charter without guidelines or by generating concepts that are variations of one idea. Others gather no evidence from customers. Interview at least a handful of potential customers. Rank the problems you hear. Generate concepts that differ in approach. Keep the charter specific enough to rule some ideas out. Report what customers actually said, even when it surprised you, since surprises often point to the best opportunities. Keep notes from your interviews for later parts. A free first sample on your own MKT-3350 project part 1 is available on request.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Thomas Edison State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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MKT 3350 Module 2 questions, answered
Where can I find a free MKT 3350 Module 2 sample paper?
Five concepts for an apartment composter, built from twenty home interviews and a product innovation charter, appear in Part 1 above.
What is the problem-find-solve approach?
Finding customers' problems first, then generating products that solve them.
How many customer interviews are enough to find needs?
Research found that 20 to 30 interviews in a segment uncover most needs.
What is attribute listing?
A concept generation technique that varies a product's attributes to create new combinations.
What does a product innovation charter include?
The focus, goals and guidelines for new product work, including what the firm must protect.