By Jim Fitch
Basic Fluid Power Research Journal
Marketing should play a major role in the design of new fluid power products. The wants, needs and problems of the consumer are many times ignored as important inputs to product design. Without the use of marketing information, products can develop that are not competitive in the marketplace by failing to meet the needs of consumers.
This paper describes the role of marketing in product design and emphasizes the interaction and exchange of ideas between engineering, industrial design, and marketing. Such a market oxiented approach produces products that practically sell themselves. Applying this approach to the design of fluid-power products should have a tremendous, positive effect on the industry as a whole.