Product revitalisation

Many companies exclusively develop brand new products-they never try to upgrade existing ones. Evidence from the Far East indicates that alternative approaches may be more successful. The author explores ways in which `revitalising´ products can be a cost-effective route to market success. The author describes the evolutionary approach to product development adopted in Japan and then discusses a type of incremental product developments-revitalisation. Barriers to the technique are also discussed. The three main steps in revitalisation are then discussed