Review and Understand Your Assignment
The purpose of this stepwise assignment is to provide an opportunity to play the role of marketing manager and gain valuable, first-hand experience in writing, organizing, and polishing a marketing plan.
In this fourth part of the assignment, you will develop a product description. This includes:
Personal Products
- classify your product as a convenience, shopping, specialty, or unsought product
Business Products
- classify as an installation, accessory equipment, raw materials, component parts, MRO (maintenance, repair, and operating) supplies, or business services
All Products
- Product life cycle
- Brand awareness
- packaging and labeling
- product development including quality, design, features, etc.
- product positioning
Product Development
- Social Explorer Learning Module: Product Life CycleSocial Explorer tutorial explaining how market data impacts product life cycle.
A product life cycle is the total amount of time that a product is available to consumers, from when it’s first introduced until it’s removed from the market. A product’s life cycle begins when it’s initially developed and introduced to the market and ends when the product is no longer available for purchase.
1. The development phase of the product life cycle is when raw ideas are refined into a marketable concept. From a business standpoint, product developers conduct market research, determine whether the concept is viable, and identify their target audiences. Sometimes development is couple with the introduction phase of a campaign; the time when consumers are first made aware of a product. During this phase, it’s critical that marketers use multiple channels to target their ideal audiences. An introduction comes just before a product’s release and can set the stage for a successful launch.
2. A product’s growth stage is when consumers begin to believe in its capabilities and view it as something that will add value to their lives. Demand and profits are both on the rise when a product is in its growth phase.
3. In a product’s maturity stage, sales grow at a slow but steady pace. The rapid growth period has ended and supply has balanced out with demand. Competitors have established a foothold and are threatening the original manufacturer’s market share, but most original producers have mastered the processes of sourcing raw materials and manufacturing enough to cut prices to encourage continued sales.
4. The end of the maturity stage is what many call the saturation stage. This is when sales begin to stagnate. They have not yet begun to decline, but they are no longer rising either. This is usually followed by a decrease in sales and is most commonly referred to as the decline phase of the product life cycle.
Adapted from Adobe.com.
Product & Brand Awareness Resources
Business Source Elite Database
Use keywords such as a brand name, product category, AND the broader relevant industry, paired with terms such as brand equity, brand parity, consumers, etc. For example: restaurant AND brand awareness
Built to Love : Creating Products That Captivate Customers by Peter Boatwright, Jonathan Cagan, and Donna Sturgess
This book shows you how to address your customers' emotional needs and shows you engaging case studies from a variety of industries to help you understand how to integrate emotion into your products and services, regardless of the nature of your business.
AdWeek: Brand Marketing Website
News and insights from our editors, reporters and columnists, including coverage of marketing trends, as well as the tools and technology to drive sales.
Kantar Global Brand Awareness Website
BrandZ ranks and showcases the most valuable brands in 16 countries, every year. Country ranking reports include thought leadership on local marketing topics.
Positioning the Brand : An Inside-Out Approach Book Cover Image by Rik Riezebos , and Jaap van der Grinten
Firstly, the book was written from the perspective of the brand manager, and has therefore been shaped as a practical roadmap. Secondly, this book advocates a new stance on positioning, teaching the reader to look from the inside-out, instead of adopting the usual outside-in methodology. This book is intended for (future) managers, marketing professionals and communication professionals responsible for the commercial success and reputation of a brand.
Launching New Products : Best Marketing and Sales Practices by John Westman and Paul Sowyrda
The goals of this book are to discuss critical topics in launching new products, and to distill successful approaches from hundreds of publications and experience from launching over 50 new products into a checklist for marketing leaders, CEOs, and board members. The function of this checklist is to force consideration and completion of tasks that drive a successful product launch.
How Products Are Made Website
How Products Are Made explains and details the manufacturing process of a wide variety of products, from daily household items to complicated electronic equipment and heavy machinery. The site provides step by step descriptions of the assembly and the manufacturing process (complemented with illustrations and diagrams) Each product also has related information such as the background, how the item works, who invented the product, raw materials that were used, product applications, by-products that are generated, possible future developments, quality control procedures, etc.
Read more: http://www.madehow.com/#ixzz8AR5Q8000