METHODS AND APPARATUS TO IMPROVE MARKET LAUNCH PERFORMANCE

1 . A method to assess market performance comprising:

receiving a pre-launch market concept; and

assessing the concept with a hierarchical framework comprising:

identifying a framework dimension;

identifying a framework construct associated with the framework dimension; and

identifying at least one evaluative factor associated with the framework construct.

2 . A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising generating at least one recommendation based on a response to the at least one evaluative factor.

3 . A method as defined in claim 2 , wherein the at least one recommendation comprises at least one of conduct a consumer study, rework the concept, abandon the concept, or forward the concept to market.

4 . A method as defined in claim 3 , wherein conducting a consumer study comprises at least one of a consumer survey, a consumer questionnaire, a focus group, or a consumer poll.

5 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the framework dimension corresponds to characteristics associated with at least one of market success, consumer acceptance, or consumer preference of the concept.

6 . A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising assigning a score to the at least one evaluative factor.

7 . A method as defined in claim 6 , further comprising assigning a score to the framework construct based on the score of the at least one evaluative factors.

8 . A method to improve market performance at launch comprising:

receiving a concept associated with a commercial offering;

retrieving standard consumer measure associated with a characteristic of the concept;

retrieving a framework evaluative factor corresponding to the characteristic from a hierarchical framework; and

applying the standard consumer measure and the framework evaluative factor to a research initiative to determine market response to the concept.

9 . A method as defined in claim 8 , wherein applying the standard consumer measure and the framework evaluative factor further comprises assigning a first score to the framework evaluative factor and a second score to the standard consumer measure based on consumer responses to the concept.

10 . A method as defined in claim 9 , further comprising calculating at least one of a construct score or a dimension score.

11 . A method as defined in claim 10 , further comprising comparing the at least one of the construct score or the dimension score to at least one stored score to determine a relative success factor of the received concept.

12 . A method as defined in claim 11 , further comprising selecting the at least one stored score based on at least one of a category limitation, a geographic limitation, or a demographic limitation.

13 . A method as defined in claim 8 , wherein receiving the framework evaluative factor comprises:

identifying at least one framework dimension;

identifying at least one framework construct associated with the at least one framework dimension; and

selecting the framework evaluative factor from a plurality of evaluative factors associated with the at least one framework construct.

14 . An apparatus to improve market performance at launch comprising:

a concept receiver to convert a concept associated with a commercial offer of a product into a format for evaluation;

a framework to provide a hierarchy of dimensions, constructs, and evaluative factors; and

a concept evaluator to automatically apply the framework to the received concept to generate a relative success factor for the received concept.

15 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein the dimensions correspond to marketplace success factors, and the constructs correspond to consumer adoption factors of the dimensions.

16 . An apparatus as defined in claim 15 , wherein the evaluative factors are associated with constructs, and the evaluative factors are questions to elicit values associated with their corresponding constructs.

17 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein the concept evaluator further comprises a concept scoring engine to calculate a scoring value for a first one of the evaluative factors.

18 . An apparatus as defined in claim 17 , further comprising a scoring database to provide at least one framework formula to calculate a construct score of a first one of the constructs, the score based on the scoring value for the first evaluative factor.

19 . An apparatus as defined in claim 18 , further comprising a concept comparator to compare the construct score with at least one stored score associated with another commercial offering to determine a relative success factor.

20 . An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

receive a pre-launch market concept; and

assess the concept with a hierarchical framework comprising:

identifying a framework dimension;

identifying a framework construct associated with the framework dimension; and

identifying at least one evaluative factor associated with the framework construct.

21 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 20 , wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to generate at least one recommendation based on a response to the at least one evaluative factor.

22 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 21 , wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to recommend at least one of conduct a consumer study, rework the concept, abandon the concept, or forward the concept to market.

23 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 20 , wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to assign a score to the at least one evaluative factor.

24 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 23 , wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to assign a score to the framework construct based on the score of the at least one evaluative factor.