MKT_VI

MKT 5301, Advanced Marketing 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit V Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

3. Analyze the use of marketing strategies in the management of global customer brand equity. 3.6 Assess whether a company holds a competitive advantage.

3. Compare the development of innovative new products on competitive product strategies.

4.2 Examine how innovative new product development impacts a marketing strategy. 4.3 Contrast competitive companies’ marketing and product strategies.

Required Unit Resources Chapter 8: Designing and Managing Products Chapter 9: Designing and Managing Services—Read the following sections:

• The Nature of Services • The New Services Realities

Unit Lesson What do you think about when you hear product offering? Your first reaction is probably a mental picture of the physical product itself. While this is a part of the product offering, it goes beyond this to also include services, quality of the product, installation, warranty, delivery, packaging, and the brand. Within the product offering, differentiation is a key element in order to maintain a competitive advantage with respect to the product. Kotler and Keller (2016) discuss aspects of product differentiation on p. 371 of the textbook. Companies absolutely need to maintain a differentiated product in order to provide consumers with the rationale for purchasing your product over the competitors’ products. As consumers review each of these differentiating elements within the product category, they determine whether these factors carry a higher value proposition than the product’s competitors. Packaging plays an important role in the product strategy. It not only protects the product but also enhances it. This is accomplished by sending a message with the end goal to influence the purchase. Additionally, packaging provides necessary information about the product to not only align with regulatory agencies’ rules about ingredients but also to expedite the buying process. This might be accomplished with the use of Universal Product Codes (UPCs) that allow for fast scanning of multiple products and work as an accurate and timely system of inventory management. Take a moment to view the video Out of the Box Samsung.mp4 (transcript for Out of the Box Samsung.mp4 video). In the video, the target market is an older demographic who might struggle with putting together and operating a new cell phone. The packaging mimics packages with which this elderly demographic is typically quite familiar. In earlier units, there was an introduction to brand management, which uses marketing techniques to increase the perceived value of a product or service over time. This perception is driven by multiple factors including the quality of the product or service, pricing, and distribution techniques, as well as the packaging strategies. Marketing managers work very hard to protect their brand to ensure this positive perception. Their goal is to ensure that every use of their name, logo, or message aligns with the overall company persona they are looking to project. This supports the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC). Marketing managers are also striving for the target market to develop a relationship with the brand, leading to brand

UNIT V STUDY GUIDE Managing Innovative Product and Service Offerings

MKT 5301, Advanced Marketing 2

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preference. Communication is essential in this relationship as the company is looking to build trust with the target market as they continue to reinforce the product or service brand personality. Product managers or brand managers within large corporations are involved with the oversight associated with this product system, which is defined as a group of related products that are somewhat compatible with each other. Conversely, the product mix or product assortment refer to all of the products the company offers. Decisions are executed on the width of the product mix, which equates to how many different product lines the company will offer. Another area of consideration is that of the length of the product line, which looks at the number of items in the product mix. The depth is also considered, which looks at how many different options are offered for each product. Finally, the consistency analyzes how related the products actually are to one another. As the world continues to be more competitive and society becomes more time poor, companies look to differentiate their product offerings based on the services provided. This could be as simple as on-time delivery or a faster response time to inquiries. At the end of the day, it is all about providing the customer with services that the particular target market desires, which will build a lasting relationship with the company and brand. As discussed in Chapter 8 of the textbook, products can be made up of 100% tangible goods, such as a box of Kleenex or a loaf of bread. Alternatively, services can make up 100% of a brand, such as hair styling or an athletic club membership. There is also a blend where a physical product is provided in conjunction with a service. An example of this might be a restaurant where you receive the actual food, and the service provided is the cooking and serving of the food. The United States has become an increasingly heavy service-based society. Government, nonprofit, business, and manufacturing sectors have all added to this situation. Each of these areas has seen an increase in the service side of their business. Employment in professional and business services alone has averaged up to 47,000 each month in 2018 and 34,000 each month in 2019 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). What is your favorite new product that a company has offered lately? Do you remember the can koozies, as shown in the image below? They would sometimes fit on your drink of choice and sometimes would not. They most certainly did not work on bottles.

(AWesleyFord, n.d.)

This Freaker USA website displays a new product that serves a similar purpose (to keep drinks cool), but the product fits on containers of any size, and the product is available in a plethora of unique designs. Besides being an innovative product, read the story of the aforementioned product, and review some of the video marketing techniques. A word of warning—the company may be off-the-wall, but their marketing is most certainly effective.

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One example of a mature product offering is laundry detergent. Tide came up with the Tide Pods concept, which is a small, dissolvable, single-use package of detergent. While this product costs the consumers about 25% more per load, the question remains regarding whether the value of convenience is worth the extra cost (Glazer, 2012). Other products come about with respect to our need to be green and sustainable. Still, other innovative ideas are created through the need for continued medical advancements. After a new product is commercialized, it moves through what is called a product life cycle. This cycle describes the changes that the new product goes through and how sales are impacted at each stage. With this in mind, the marketing efforts at each stage must also change. Take a look at the product life cycle and the characteristics associated with each stage.

Each stage has unique characteristics; therefore, the wise marketer will exert different efforts at each stage. Within the market introduction area, the content of the marketing should be informational and intense as the consumer does not necessarily even know about the product offering. In the growth stage, the customer knows about the product but now has the option of choosing from your competitors. The marketing content at this stage should include facts that differentiate your product offering from the competitors’ products. During the marketing maturity stage, the content should continue to influence and maintain a bit of goodwill in order to maintain past customers. Finally, during the sales decline, marketing content should include incentives for coming back to your product and possibly include price reductions such as buy-one-get-one-free deals. Before a product or service gets to the point of commercialization, the company moves through a new product development process to ensure the idea is worth bringing to commercialization. This begins with idea generation where the product or service idea is formulated. These ideas come from a variety of different places, beginning with market research, customers or users, competitors, other markets, employees, suppliers, wholesalers, distributors, and even family members. The next step in the process is the screening, which involves an evaluation process that might include a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, which was discussed earlier in this course. The idea here is to ascertain if this new product or service idea really fits with the company objectives and market trends.

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The third step is the idea evaluation where the sophisticated evaluation process begins. This might involve concept testing or even focus-group research of customers to understand their reactions to this new product/service idea. Additionally, rough estimates of costs, sales, and projected profits will be analyzed. The next stage is that of development where a prototype is put together to see if the product is a viable product. If the new product is a service, the details of the training of staff and the sequencing of the process will be compiled for review. During this stage, research and development is critical as the product specifications are analyzed and the viability of the product or service is finalized. As expected, final edits on the return-on-investment (ROI) numbers are also compiled. If the product has made it through all of these stages, the product is commercialized. Remember, the purpose of the new product development process is to remove or edit the new product or service as it moves through each stage. As the product or service moves from one stage to another, it costs the company money with respect to resources in the development. If the product is not a viable product, the company would prefer to stop the process before it makes it through the process and is commercialized. At commercialization, the product is finalized, and production begins. The marketing plan is implemented, and the final ROI numbers are submitted. At this point, the product begins the product life cycle discussed earlier in this lesson.

Up to this point, the discussion of innovation and new product development has been vertical in nature. The reality is that innovation and new product development should be combined in one collaborative effort. Marketing managers need to begin with a focused and actionable vision to provide the roadmap to innovation. To maximize innovative creativity with the new product development ideas, objectives should be initiated by multiple functional areas of the business. Examples could include the marketing department compiling a strategy to penetrate a new market segment. Research and development (R&D) could drive innovation of a new technology that disrupts the capabilities of the product and the industry as a whole. Apple products are a good example of this. Through this process, measurement metrics need to be agreed on and established to ensure the appropriate ROI on new product innovations.

Conclusion New products should represent a value proposition to the consumer. Innovation is key to the development of products and services that will disrupt the industry and validate profit maximization. Investing the time in properly aligning new products with the brand identity will protect the brand, ensuring appropriate brand and product management.

MKT 5301, Advanced Marketing 5

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References AWesleyFord. (n.d.). ID 39480122 [Illustration]. Dreamstime. https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-

photography-aluminum-can-koozie-illustration-great-mock-ups-image39480122 Glazer, E. (2012, February 23). Tide rides convenience wave: Procter & Gamble bets consumers will pay

more for premeasured detergent. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204778604577239350705596884

Kotler, P., Keller, K. L., & Chernev, A. (2022). Marketing management (16th ed.). Pearson.

https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780135887035 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019). Current employment statistic highlights.

https://www.bls.gov/ces/publications/highlights/2019/current-employment-statistics-highlights-08- 2019.pdf

Suggested Unit Resources You are encouraged to review the chapter below, which will provide additional details on topics covered in the unit lesson regarding new market offerings. Chapter 18: Developing New Market Offerings