摘要：For successful product development it is important to explore the latent changes in consumer behavior prior to the product development process. The identification of a latent trend before the manifestation moment can be achieved by trend analysis. Trend analysis delivers insights that explore the future in order to identify prospective consumers and new product ideas, but also includes a feeling for the currents in market and technology. Hence, the aim is to identify emerging weak signals in consumer behavior that have potential as large revenue opportunities when implemented into new products. Therefore, the objective of our paper is to provide a novel tool for this identification and how the identified trends can be translated into new products. Until now there is no such link described in the literature to the knowledge of the authors. The novel tool is constructed as a decision tree allowing food companies to make a sound decision about whether or not to start the product development process. Beginning with the question if the trend is new or not, the user of the tool will be led to one of the above described innovation types. Based on the result the company can decide whether to initiate the product development process in order to follow this trend or not. The choice of initiating the product development process should also depend on the firm's capabilities, resources, and profile. By means of examples the novel tool is explained and managerial implications are provided.
