Correspondence: Vibhava Srivastava, L. M. Thapar School of Management, Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab-147004, India. E-mail: vibhava.srivastava@thapar.edu

¹is currently employed as Lecturer by Thapar University, in L. M. Thapar School of Management. He has over 6 years experience in industry and academia. His interest areas are marketing and strategic management.

²is currently employed as Assistant Professor by Thapar University, in L. M. Thapar School of Management. He has over 9 years experience in industry and academia. His interest areas are marketing management and research methodology.

³is currently employed as consultant by Gensol Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

Received 21 September 2009; Revised 21 September 2009; Published online 30 October 2009.

Abstract

Designing a new product has been a challenging area for marketers particularly if the product is specialized in nature and caters to niche market where users are high-end professionals like Radiologist. The underlying approach in designing such new products is to optimize organizational resources by unraveling potential customers' preferred attributes and level choices and to come up with the product offering having superior value. This study utilizes conjoint analysis for determining the relative level of preferences to the customers for various attributes of the product, Color Doppler in this case, before developing its prototype. The present research gives insight into the complexity and trade-offs in designing product offerings for niche technical product markets. Finally, the theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed.