The role of consultancies in new product development

In the new product development (NPD) literature, little attention has been paid to the use of external marketing consultancies in the process. This work describes a study, using both personal and telephone interviewing, of 50 British‐based consumer goods companies with a view to identifying the organisational structures they used for NPD. The study focused on the use of specialist NPD marketing consultancies in order to try and establish why successful companies regularly used such consultancies even though they already had their own marketing departments. It was found that the most common reason given for the use of consultancies was to bring in an objective view, from outside the company engaged in development, to work on NPD decisions. Even sophisticated companies found it valuable to employ consultants who could operate with detachment from day‐to‐day business issues and company politics.