In order to survive, knitting machinery manufacturers have had to acquire competitive advantage from designing speciality machines for nontraditional applications. This paper considers the joint marketing and research and development effort required to exploit existing technology for innovative applications. The company described has developed a range of high-speed circular knitting machines to make continuous tubular wire mesh. Strategic marketing must be carefully thought about in order to further the knowledge on wire knitting technology already acquired, and thus exploit the investment on research and development. Bringing new products to the market and creating openings for new applications requires a thorough understanding of customers needs and wants. The company has worked together with customers to design purpose built machines, and therefore R&D efforts have been focused to specific customer's needs. The paper describes the innovations that have made it possible to substantially improve existing machines and to create markets for applications that had been traditionally manufactured using other methods. It also analyses the difficulties of producing a marketing-led specification in niche market applications. Based on experiences at the company described, the paper investigates the requirements of a cost effective liaison between marketing, R&D and the customers to ensure bringing successful new products to the market.
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