Product

Does product quality guarantee the success of a business? Various factors are analyzed to examine whether or not a good quality product by itself can propel a business into success. A product of good quality can be defined as one that best satisfies the consumer’s needs at the price they are willing to pay. While it is integral to business success, it is certainly not the only factor that guarantees it, simply because businesses function as an integrated whole, and the success of only one part does not guarantee success of the entire organization.

Business success can be referred to as an achievement of common objectives such as profitability, growth, or increasing market share. A good quality product undeniably brings positive contributions to the success of a business. One benefit is customer satisfaction. Once they are satisfied with the product, the customer will be likely to make repeat purchases, and over time develop a strong loyalty towards the brand. When the business has a reputation for producing good quality products with a strong customer base, it establishes itself in a strong position in the market, giving it the opportunity to increase its market share.

As a result, retailers would be more willing to stock their products, giving the business more options in terms of the channel of distribution, and thus giving them a competitive advantage. This can also lead to marketing economies of scale, whereby a cross marketing of brands can be used to strongly promote different products simultaneously because an overall positive brand image has been created. Another cost saving is that fewer complaints will need to be dealt with, and because of this, fewer repairs and wastage costs will be incurred.

These savings of average costs could then be kept as retained profits, or invested in business growth, proving beneficial to business success. Read more in Business « Globalization: A Natural Phenomenon Establishing Business Communications in an Emerging Company » It is evident, then, that businesses must find some sort of way of monitoring quality that best suits them to ensure quality products are consistently produced. This could involve quality control, where inspectors check a sample of finished products for defects, or quality assurance, where quality is the responsibility of each worker and is built into the production process.

Quality control could perhaps work better with management that believe in a more strictly controlled work environment, whereas quality assurance works better if management empower and trust workers more, allowing them participation in the improvement process. Provided these methods are implemented well enough, and are appropriate to the corporate culture of the business, this crucial aspect influencing business success can be ensured.

However, because businesses operate in complex environments there are many other contributing factors to business success, which, if not integrated with good product quality, will have negative effects. From a marketing perspective, in the research and development stage, market research must be conducted accurately to predict demand; otherwise, even if a very good quality product is produced, if a target market is not defined or there is no demand for it at all, then the product will fail.

In the development process, value analysis should be conducted, where the appearance, performance and the economy of manufacture of the product should be compared to achieve an ideal balance. If the business solely relied on product quality, it would focus on appearance and performance and neglect the economy of manufacture, which could lead to the production of a good that customers find to be of high quality, but costs so much to produce that it is not profitable to the business, and not worth making.

Nowadays, innovative is an essential advantage in this dog-eat-dog market for every organization. Innovative can be everything that is new and not exist in current market, however in order to fulfill the gap in this demanding market, organizations must be very innovative to come out with new products and services. Organizations nowadays are recruiting employees who are creative and innovative because they are person who have sensitive antenna to sense and observe what the people want and need.

In current market, thermos water bottle is very common for people to store their drinks; because thermos water bottle allows people to keep their drinks cold or warm for a very short period of time. Therefore, there would be a gap exists where the people want to drink cold or hot beverage at anytime and anywhere they want. To fulfill this gap, DualBottle has came out as it is a thermos water bottle which has the function of heating and freezing the beverage inside the thermos water bottle at anytime the customer wants.

In other words, DualBottle will act like a refrigerator to chill the water as cold as it can or heating up the water just like a water boiler. In the current market, there is no similar product that has the function like DualBottle and this innovative product will bring in another level of convenience to the consumers in the market. Hence, people may want this new product to be in the market. In fact, water bottle in the current market is only used for storing water and sometimes not even suitable to store hot water as some water bottles have no qualified certificate because it is made of lower quality of plastic.

In addition, DualBottle enables people to get hot or cold water easily in their daily activities. In this assignment, we are going to discuss in-depth on market research of DualBottle and also new product descriptions and specifications. Market Research Direct competitors There are several direct competitors for DualBottle which they have the similar types of product in the same market such as heaters, coolers and normal water bottles. In this case, keeping on track on consequential technological innovations is very important for a particular company to maintain a competitive advantage in the market.

Firstly, the innovative product will have certain competition and comparatives with those existing and well-known brand like Thermos, Zebra, Camelback, Klean Kanteen, SIGG, Cheeki, Eco vessel and many more. These brands are the direct competitors for the DualBottle because these brands produce quality stainless steel and aluminium water bottles similar to the DualBottle but of course every brand has its specialty of their own products such as the designs, different attractive colors, functions, specifications, future and its outlook.

These brands are the main direct competitors for DualBottle because both these products from these brands have the similar functions of heat preservation and have these brands are historical as compared with the new product. Though our new innovative product, DualBottle can reheat and re-chill the drinks; however, the existing of the products can only help to maintain the heat and the warmness of the drinks. In fact, people may be more likely to choose old brand due to brand loyalty and influenced by the power of word of mouth.

The brand new product might be very novel yet it is still under the observation period to attract and being recognized by the people. On the other hand, old products are more creditable and always have good comments from one consumer to another consumer. Indirect competitors Beside those direct competitors, there are a number of indirect competitors for the DualBottle. Indirect competitors are the competitors that compete with the DualBottle indirectly. For example refrigerators that can cool the water, this is an indirect competitor because households have refrigerators at home.

So it is considered as an indirect competitor. On the other hand, the kettle and hot water flask are also indirect competitors to the DualBottle because at home people use kettle to boil water and hot water flask because the flask is to keep the hot water to remain hot. Other than that, Mineral waters that are sold in sundry shops, supermarkets, convenient shops, and other places are considered as indirect competitors because they have cold beverages and warm beverages separately. Instead of purchasing DualBottle, customers might just purchase mineral waters for daily usage.

Besides that, water dispensers are the main indirect competitors because the DualBottle mostly targeted customers are people who work in office, travel daily and also students. Water dispensers are available in all colleges and offices. Hence, instead bringing the water bottles along with them, customers may prefer using the water dispenser for cold and warm drinks. So it is considered a main competitor to the DualBottle that competes in the market. Furthermore, companies such as Starbucks also are served as the indirect competitor for the new product.

Although Starbucks specialized on producing good and tasty coffee, the company itself has launched their own tumbler which also has the similar function with this new product as tumbler can be used to fill up the hot beverages. Besides that, Starbucks also has a promotion for its own customers by using the tumbler when they purchase hot beverage. They can get the RM2 rebate by using the tumbler. Hence, most of the customers who loyal and fascinating in Starbucks will tend to purchase the tumbler to get better offer. This phenomenon also will be one of the issues for the launching of new product.

Next, in terms of the future competition for the DualBottle where in this new era technology is growing in a fast pace, all the products that selling in the market already be advanced. In the past years, these products are not in existence. However, in today’s fast development society, these products cannot be left out and more innovative and modern products are being launched. Most of the young adults have strong interest in trying new products. When this situation happened, all of the past products might be left out.

Thus, to consolidate the base of new product in the competitive market, branding should be taken into consideration. Future competitors not only on the products themselves, but also included the consumer behaviour in today’s society. There will be always new competitors that will enter the market because of the advance of the technology. Target customers The innovative product, water bottle thermos is designed to satisfy all the needs of the individual and company. Furthermore, targeted customers are normal people who travel a lot; they can keep warm or cold water together with them while travelling in the car or bus.

For instance, long distance travellers can keep hot coffee in the DualBottle so they can drink it while travelling to keep them fresh. Besides that, we are also targeting DualBottle on working adults and students who usually face with busy and tight schedule where they may be even unable to have their proper meals. For example, an event executive, Amanda is too busy with her task and could not even find time to have her meals and so, with this DualBottle, she is now able to enjoy her favourite drinks either in hot or cold at anytime and anywhere even when she is busy.

With our unique selling point of DualBottle, that is the ability to reheat and re-freeze the drinks quickly by using the steel casing in which making DualBottle appeared to be so practical; it may also attract many companies to purchase our product as it can provide a high level of convenience to their employees. Therefore, we may be indulging ourselves in both B2B and B2C market in order to gain higher market share respectively and establishing a strong position in the market. We strongly believe that targeting the right consumers will achieve a desirable benefit to our innovative product, DualBottle.

New Product First of all, stainless steel water bottle maybe very common in this current market such as Thermos, Klean Kanteen, Thinksport, and Eco Vessel. In fact that, there are just normal insulated water bottles which can keep drinks cold or hot for a short period however; DualBottle is coming up with an innovative idea where the water bottle is chargeable in order to heat up the drinks or make the drinks chilled. Although it appears to be nothing different from ordinary bottle, DualBottle has a ‘magic’ function that cannot be found in the current market.

The uniqueness that able to chill soft drinks or to retain temperature of warm Chinese tea with a tiny “plug and play” kind of component attached to make DualBottle more standout. Similarly to some other portable coolers, it uses thermoelectric cooling system concept to switch between two modes (cold and hot) with just a button. In line with technology advancement, DualBottle is designed with an external component that can be attached from the bottom of the bottle and it is contacted with a metal plate to serve as conductor in order to transmit cold and heat.

Meanwhile, instead of operating in 12 or 24 volts direct current (DC) which is similar to mini fridge, we would replace the battery storage with a 2800 milli-Ampere-hour (mAh) rechargeable battery. For instance, two hours are required to get the battery fully charged and it could be used for ten consecutive hours. Besides, there would be two different ways to charge the battery component by using direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC). It would be more convenient as users do not need to plug-on direct current or alternating current in order to use of the function because there would be power reserved in battery component.

Additionally, DualBottle will have an automatic power switch off when the water temperature is heated up to 70°C and the water temperature is chilled down to 3°C to 5°C. On the other hand, DualBottle can be presented more innovative by introducing another range of models that uses solar energy as an optional charging method therefore; the battery can be charged automatically whenever solar heat is stored. Moreover, when users do not feel like using the function, they could always remove the external component to function it as ordinary bottles like Bros, Sigg and Zebra.

In addition, DualBottle is chargeable by using USB port charger and car power adapter as well, this idea enables users to charge DualBottle whenever they want. In fact, DualBottle can act more than a common water bottle where it can perform as a water warmer to keep the beverage warm for 4-6 hours because of the double-wall insulation designed; then it also can act as a water heater to heat up the beverage up to 70°C, lastly it perform as a water cooler to hill the beverage down to 3°C. Forget about the traditional design of Thermos bottle in which it looked heavy with stainless steel silver colour; DualBottle would design the products with relatively new colours and standout themes. DualBottle would look more colorful and attractive by adding some printings on it, the designs can be plain but sharp colors and candy colours, animal prints for fancy female group, and users can even print their pictures or words on DualBottle.

To target different types of customers, DualBottle would allow customers to choose their favourite colour and design or to custom-made their bottle by choosing what design, features, function, colour, and engrave their name on the bottle. Besides, it would be designed for easy to carry by attaching a strap and also slim fit exterior outlook of the bottle. Meanwhile, the cover cap of DualBottle would be anti-leaking water designed which are made by rubber and plastic. It would be easier to design the bottle with open-close cover, instead of using rubber grip cap cover.

However, there are also pros and cons to adopt the design of open-close cover. For instance, rubber grip cap cover can have better prevention of losing the water temperature in the bottle as compared with the open-close cover. As people are more health conscious nowadays, DualBottle uses stainless steel, aluminium and bisphenol A (BPA) free as inner bottle materials in production line hence; it would not be harmful to the users. Since a metal plate would acts as an electrical conductor to heat up or chill cold the drinks; stainless steel, aluminium and BPA free plastic materials are not an issue to end-users.

In general, DualBottle has three different kinds of bottles but they perform the same function for users. This is because to target different group of customers as stainless steel material is usually expensive, aluminium material is on the average price, and plastic material would be cheaper. Nevertheless, high quality of stainless steel materials are usually weigh heavier as compared to aluminium and plastic materials; so materials made of DualBottle might be affect the weight of product but however, DualBottle has only two standardized bottle volume which are 500ml and 750ml.

To be a part of contributing towards environmental friendly program, we would to use recycle materials if possible. The quality of the product must be proven through some international recognized authorities like FDA (US Food & Drug Administration), LFGB (Europe Food Contact Material Standard), ISO (International Organization for Standardization), and SIRIM (Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia).

Besides, DualBottle would only use high quality of electric thermos which it is also often used by Thermos, Klean Kanteen, and La Gourmet; this is to ensure that DualBottle can produce high quality products instead of using cheap materials. With the fact that the production cost might not be cheap and therefore it is expected that DualBottle is placed in high quality and high price position. Conclusion In the current market, thermos water bottle is frequently used by the people to store their drinks and keeping their drinks cold or warm for only a very short period of time.

Our group has established the gap within the market where people may want to enjoy cold or hot drinks at the anytime and anywhere in their daily life. Thus, we have come out with an innovative product called “DualBottle”. In developing DualBottle, it is apparent that we will be facing those direct competitors like Thermos, Klean Kanteen, Sigg, and Zebra which have dominated the market for quite a long time in producing thermos water bottle. However, these products only consists the function of preserving heat and not heating or freezing like what DualBottle can do.

On the other hand, we also will be facing some of the indirect competitors in the market like water dispenser companies, mineral water companies, some electrical companies that produces kettle and water boiler and even Starbucks as they had launched their own brand tumbler to increase loyalty of their customers. The DualBottle is targeted at travellers, students and working adults who may be very eventful and does not even have the time to sit down and enjoy their drinks. Thus, the ability of DualBottle to heat and freeze drinks enable these people to have a moment of pleasure on their favourite drinks either in hot or cold.

The practical side of DualBottle may attract companies to buy in bulk from us in order to supply to their employees as it is very convenient to their daily activities. DualBottle introduces a function where it can be heated up the beverage or chilled the beverage in water bottle by only clicking a button. This function can be done by attaching a metal plate which acts as conductor on the bottom of the inner bottle and then an external component to act as battery to transmit energy.

In additional, the external battery is actually an external component which can be attached or removed from the bottle. It is easy to charge by using adapter, USB port, car power adapter, and also solar energy. Moreover, Dualbottle design the bottle by using 3 different kinds of materials which include stainless steel, aluminium, and plastic. There are all having the same performance and with 2 standardized capacity volume of bottle which are 500ml and 750ml.

DualBottle may obtain international certificates by government organizations to prove that the bottles are safe to use and has no harms to health. Besides, it would be having attractive outlook as the designs are standout and DualBottle enables customers to custom-made their bottle as well. The cover cap of bottle may be open-close cover design because of convenience and anti-leaking purpose. In conclusion, DualBottle is a high quality dual-function bottle and hence, it would be also selling at higher price.

Customer Needs, Wants & Demands

Needs are the basic human requirements. People need air, water, food, clothing and shelter to survive. People also have strong needs for recreation, education and entertainment. These needs become Wants when they are directed to specific objects that might satisfy the need. Wants are shaped by our society. Demands are wants for specific products backed by an ability to pay. Needs are of five types – Stated needs,  Real needs, Unstated needs, Delight needs, Secret needs The SUV, “Mahindra Scorpio” comes under Real needs.

Real need is a need where a customer wants a 4 wheeler whose operating cost, its initial price is low. A customer opts for a Mahindra Scorpio because

• It has a combination of pulling capacity.
• It is a safer vehicle because of its larger and heavier built and some people like a vehicle with broader seat arrangement with proper thy support.
• It has a very good cargo capacity.
• It’s an All Terrain Vehicle made for rocky roads and smooth glass like roads for a comfortable journey.
• It has very powerful CRDE Engine with a higher torque full on capacity to drag itself with ease when the throttle is fully pressed.

SWOT Analysis of Mahindra Scorpio

SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It’s a way of monitoring the external and internal marketing environment. The analysis is as follows- Strengths Analysis :- It has a very low maintenance cost with a gracefully tough masculine look. It has an extremely smooth performance in the rural, hilly, city and highway roads. Has a well designed seating arrangement. Excellent performance in case of covering long distance. A very well impressed loyal brand positioning with good numbers of service centers.

Weakness Analysis:- It has a very limited International market. There are no airbags for protection Opportunities Analysis:- Hard work of the R department to innovate some new attractive featured models. Increasing the purchasing power and attraction towards heavy cars of common people. Making the models more fuel efficient models and try to introduce CNG models. Threat Analysis:- Increasing competition with global players. Increasing fuel prices. Porter’s Generic Strategy Of Mahindra Scorpio

Five forces model of Porter’s generic strategy of Mahindra Scorpio is as follows –

Threat From Buyers – Mahindra Scorpio is a low and favorable SUV available in the market as in comparison with other car manufacturing companies.

Threat From Suppliers – Mahindra is in collaboration with some leading foreign car parts company for delivery of the car parts.

Threat From Competitors – There are competitors of Mahindra Scorpio in the market but no one has a SUV at this price range of Mahindra.

Threat From New Entrants – There is a threat from the new entrants as Government has approved FDI, so foreign players may come.

Threat From Substitutes – The main substitute of Mahindra Scorpio are the low range luxury cars.

BCG Matrix in terms of Mahindra Scorpio

Here in the BCG matrix the product which has a low market growth rate with low market share showed as Dog, the product which has a low market growth rate with high market share showed as Cash Cow, the product which has a high market growth rate with low market share showed as Question Mark, the product which has a high market growth rate with high market share showed as Dog. The Mahindra Scorpio comes under Star.

The Value Delivery Chain In Respect of Mahindra Scorpio

A value chain is a chain of activities. Products pass through all the activities of the chain in order and at each activity the product gains some value. As the picture shows above first the firm infrastructure is developed. Mahindra and Mahindra was already a giant automobile house when they launched Scorpio. Mahindra Scorpio is being developed at its Nashik plant. The primary value chain activities which are used in Mahindra Scorpio are: Inbound Logistics i. e the receiving and warehousing of raw materials and their distribution to manufacturing. Mahindra’s inputs primarily comprise raw materials and purchased components.

Now it’s time for assembling the raw material which is called as Operations, makes a car complete. In the next section that is in Outbound Logistics section the car is delivered to the various dealers located across India as their requirement. Now comes the most important part Marketing and Sales portion for which Mahindra has a qualified team and at last it’s time for the after sales services. In maximum urban areas of India Mahindra has a service center.

Customer Value & Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the perception of the customer which comes after using the product.

When the customer uses the product he compares between the products actual performance and the assurance provided by the company during the purchase. In case of Mahindra Scorpio, they give the actual stated features and specifications to the customers along with a very good after sales service. It makes people delightful and influensive to purchase Scorpio. Marketing Plan Of Mahindra Scorpio Mahindra being a Indian company always kept in mind the price along with fuel efficiency. Now they targeted the urban areas along with hilly roads and promoted for that with the help of the brand name Mahindra.

The distribution network of Mahindra was too much strong with distributors available across India and service centers followed by it. The car first launched in the metro cities and then entered in the smaller cities as per the awareness and promotion goes on.

The Marketing Environment Of Mahindra Scorpio

Marketing environment consists of the two parts one is internal environment and another is external environment.

Micro Environment :- The micro environment consists of the attributes such as –

• The company that includes all the departments,
•  Suppliers, Marketing intermediaries,
• Customer markets,
• Competitors
• Publics

Macro Environment:- The Macro environment consistes of

• Demographic,
• Cultural forces,
• Economics,
• Natural,
• Technological,
• Political

The micro environment is the environment which is related to the company’s internal matters as the company. Here if we check Mahindra Scorpio we can see that it has strong company profile along with that a well design supply chain and suppliers from all around. Along with this company profile the mahindra still has its compititors in the market such as Toyota, Honda who also has SUV.

And now the attribute is Publics or the customers who actually buy the car and uses it. The Macro environment is the external environment. Here we can see that the Demographic stands for the classification in terms of age and income. The Scorpio is mainly used by middle aged persons with a higher income than middle income group. Now the cultural forces which actually not affects Scorpio. Scorpio overcame the Natural obstacles and launched a product which is as preffered as on the hilly roads also preffered in the noraml highways for a long drive. Market Research

Market research often refers to either primary or secondary research. Secondary research involves a company using information compiled from various sources, which is about a new or existing product. Primary market research involves qualitative research as well as field tests or observations conducted for or tailored specifically to that product. Primary research, which is also called field research or original research, is useful for findings new information and getting customer’s views on products. now as we defined in earlier we did it in terms of Scorpio.

Having defined the competitive framework, the next task undertaken was that of analyzing the consumer. Consumer segments of B and C category car buyers were analyzed in terms of their expectations from a car, their perceptions about cars and their relationship. Proprietary techniques of research, of the advertising agency Interface Communication, like Mind &Mood, ICON and VIP were used to understand this consumer.

Segmentation, Targeting & positioning

Segmentation

A market segment consists of a group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants.

There are four different dimensions used to describe a product’s market segmentation. These four things are

• Demographic
• Behavioral
• Psychographic
• Geographic

The Demographic segmentation includes

• Adults
• Male & Female
• Mostly middle aged people
• Mostly higher income group

Behavioral segmentation is the most powerful approach because it uses

• Actual consumer behavior
• Product usage to make distinctions among market segments.

Behavioral segmentation consists of some decision role attributes like Initiator, Influencer, Decider, Buyer & User. Initiator buys it in his own decision.

Influencer influences people to buy the product such as a person using Mahindra Scorpio will influence other people to their near and dear ones to buy it. The decider here could be someone who is the head of the family and decides for his family to buy it. Behavioral Variable consists of Occasions, Benefits, User Status, Usage Rate, Buyer – Readiness, Loyalty Status, Attitude. Mahindra Scorpio is a car which can be used in all the occasions from family programs to daily life. A user uses it very frequently. In Geographic Segmentation we can say that it is good on the hilly roads as well as on the highways for a long drive.

For the Psychographic segmentation the higher class is commonly purchased among people who have a family, since it’s a SUV. Reasons for its use are Safety. By being a SUV it gives you a certain status among society. By being a SUV it gives you a certain status among society.

Targeting

M&M strategized to target a wider target audience, beyond UV customers – C class and B class, but would cut across rural and urban customers. It wanted to avoid the taxi trap that Indica and Qualis had fallen to it and did not offer color of white. Targeting was for those who wanted a lifestyle product that assured style, performance and ruggedness.

The ruggedness appeal came from the parent brand itself. Class was more of the growing upper middle class.

Positioning

M&M built an innovative positioning around the theme of an SUV with a `car plus’ package. The positioning communicated that the vehicle was better than competition in terms of any of these cars and is a better buy in terms of money. The commercials intentionally used foreign models to give an international look and feel to the product, there was a deliberate emphasis on the aspirational and world-class orientation of the Scorpio.

It adopted a bold “car plus’ approach that because it was a totally new frame of reference that was being created. The primary focus was on the lifestyle – a carefree, successful and bold attitude depicted by cruising on international highways. Mahindra purposely wanted to break way from its brand of ruggedness. The ‘nothing else will do’ was another play on the excellence that was attempting to be pushed. Advertising was strongly reinforced with below the line marketing – sponsoring events and strong test drive marketing.

PRICING STRATEGY – CANNIBALISM AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT – R. A. KERIN M. G. HARVEY J. T. ROTHE 1. My choice I have chosen to work on this topic for these reasons. For many years now, and mostly because of the economic crisis, a lot of« premium » and mid-range brands have to compete against low-cost ones. In order to do this, some of these companies decided to launch low-cost brands to bring back lost customers.

But I have already learned that this strategy can sometimes become a real threat for their premium brands: in fact, companies who do this can think that they bring new customers but unfortunately these customers are coming from their premium brand. Some real life examples are coming to me such as Coca-Cola Company who launched Coca-Cola light and Coca-Cola zero which was successful. How to avoid or reduce the brand cannibalization? What kind of strategy to develop? I hope that this article, even if it’s a very old one, can answer these questions. . The summary The article starts be giving a definition of the cannibalization effect: we consider 2 different products (A and B) belonging to the same company – cannibalization means that (all other things equal), decreasing the price of product A will bring the sales decreasing of product B. This undesirable effect is occurring when the company, instead of launching a new product, prefer to reformulate one which already exists in an already created market. Authors are putting lights on two main consequences of cannibalistic strategy.

The first one is positive, it allows to the company, through the new product, to open a new market, and thus gain market shares. The second seems to be negative, because customers of the first company’s product can switch to the second, and it will not bring any additional revenue to the company. But, as authors underline, sometimes it’s better for the company to see customers moving from the first product to the second one inside the same portfolio than reaching the competitor’s product.

So, cannibalism strategy can be a good way for the company to kill competitors, but the risk is huge if the new product creates an artificial segmentation which implies artificial needs. The distortion effect of cannibalism is the second main part of the article. Basically, it means that in order to appreciate the profitability of the new product, you must take in account cannibalization of the first one. Authors are talking about « Pyrrhic Victory » when one’s overestimate the growth of the sales volume and market share due to the new product.

Authors provide a solution to avoid this bas effect of cannibalism: the market test. For them it’s the best method to know what need(s) the new product will fulfill when it will be launched. This method can help managers to identify (the most early as possible) what amount of the new product should be produced in order to reduce the cannibalization. The question of the « acceptable » level of cannibalization is evoked: the two main drivers to compute it are according to the authors the cost structure and market maturity. 3. My opinion

One of the main lessons I learned reading this article is that cannibalism can really be a positive thing for companies. Even if customers of the new product are indeed customers who switched from the previous one, they still not competitor’s customers. Far to be a threat, the cannibalism strategy can really be useful and great for companies, especially, as I said in my first part, in time of crisis. Then I think, the article could provide more examples of « positive »or « negative » cannibalization. The example of Coca-Cola provided at the beginning of this memo is revelatory of the« positive » cannibalization.

In fact, a lot of different soda beverages belong to the Coca-Cola company (such as for instance Fanta, Minute maid or Coca-Cola). In 1983, Coca-Cola company launched Coca-Cola light, which tastes different from the original Coca-Cola but sugar free ; and then, at the beginning of 2000′, Coca zero was launched which was supposed to have the same taste as Coca-Cola original, and still sugar free. Even if Coca- Cola light lost many customers who switched to Coca zero, they still « inside » the same company and not moved to competition.

This kind of strategy was learned in our Brand management course that sometimes it consists in creating a similar product can extend the market share of both products. Named the Flanker strategy, the two products are belong not only to the same company but also to the same product category. This strategy has many advantages: it’s often almost free to market, as it’s very close to the first product and using the same brand, and it was noticed that it’s also a good way to promote both products and brands.

Product information 1. the name of all star come from full name:ALL STAR CHUCK TAYLOR Converse 1917 the world’s first dual-ALL STAR canvas shoes in production, and the beginning of the twentieth century is known as “basketball ambassador,” said U. S. asketball star CHUCK TAYLOR (Chuck Taylor) on this new line of canvas shoes, put it down, convinced thatALL STAR shoes make basketball players on the court dash and enjoy the play, so he wherever he always has a pair of ALL STAR canvas shoes, enthusiastically to her friends, basketball players and coaches recommend ALL STAR canvas shoesand basketball on the requirements of the sports shoes and personal experience, personally involved in the ALL STAR canvas shoes, improved design, making it more suitable for basketball.

The ALL STAR theoretically canvas as a material, wear. ALL STAR then only one color – – white. 1966, ALL STAR introduced color series, such as leather, rubber, etc. As technology continues to progress, more gradually been used as a shoe-making raw materials. 1970s, affected by the wave of fashion began to move closer to the natural, original feeling. ALL STAR at the time seems exceptionally retro, very easy to wear with wear to go freely to make life simplify. 996, ALL STAR launched ALL STAR 2000, the original leather uppers of canvas instead. 2. the publicity of all star ENERGY As the popularity of popular around Asia and sunshine handsome image became CONVERSE’s first China brand spokesperson, and take Taiwan as the center of radiation throughout Asia brand operation Stefanie Who speak over converse in time for the 2002 World Cup Soda Green Lead singer Qingfeng said, to rock ‘n’ roll. – London recording a new album, of course, to bring back the spirit of the original dense rock “, and his is CONVERSE always demands creative first, subversion of rational, agree without prior without previous consultation. Endorsement and participate in design. 3. the reason of choosing all star light wear resistance bending waterproof acid alkali resistance low price 4. the type of all star a)material quality canvas oxhide PU leather b)shoe model low help high help art graffiti c)shoe style Lace-up shoe Loafers 5. how to distinguish the quality goods a)the genuine heavy feeling in his hand )Soles grinding with nail clippers, genuine will be a little scratch marks, rub with fingers, no scratch marks c)genuine shoelaces cotton content is very high, you can authentic shoes untied shoelace, natural straightened can also stretched, pulled the longest time, we have a relaxed, the laces will automatically shrink d)heel behind the logo concavity, and is affixed to the upper of this shoe machine precision workmanship problem e)Soles middle “CONVERSE ALL STAR” raised LOGO mark, logo next to the security of the Star of David *, the stars beside a registered trademark of R.

Bottom for shoe sizes 6. how to take care all star a)After cleaning the shade of natural dry ventilated place, do not put the local baking sun prolonged sun exposure or high temperature, to prevent the back glue or degumming, accelerated aging b)Non professional labor shoes don’t and acid, alkali, salt chemical exposure, so as to avoid corrosion degumming deformation c)The sweaty feet heavy friends, put on the shoes before the first shoes in spray a little vinegar, can reduce the odor, the other canvas shoes should be cleaned regularly, in order to prevent mildewy smell

Love what you’re doing when you’re selling a product. The popular image of a salesperson as someone willing to “sell at all costs” is not the reality across the board in sales. A good salesperson loves sales, is motivated by what they’re selling, and transfers this enthusiasm and belief to the customer. Indeed, the customer is given options, including the one to walk away, in order to avoid such undue pressure. Learn how to listen to customers and to read their body language. Avoid interrupting or disagreeing with a customer, and provide your customer with space to talk. Know how to interpret a customer’s folded arms, eye contact, and manner of standing toward or away from you. Make the customer comfortable and you’re off to a good start in selling your product.

Be knowledgeable about the product. There is nothing more infuriating to a potential customer than to come across a half-hearted salesperson who claims uncertainty about what the product can and can’t do, what it’s made from, and what happens when things in it stop working. It is absolutely vital to know your product range inside out and if you do not know something a customer asks of you, let them know you’ll find out and get back to them as soon as possible.

Help the customer see the perks. As well as getting good product information to the right people, it is important to translate the product’s features into benefits for the customer, thus making it easier for them to buy. Have you used the product, tested it, tried it out, or worked with it–whichever is relevant? Do you feel comfortable about being able to talk to a customer as someone totally familiar with the product? Ask yourself one simple question: Why should a customer buy my product? If the only answer you can come up with is “So I can get paid,” you’re selling the wrong product.

Ensure that the product has been adequately explained. Good product information, including retail packaging, is important. Lots of salespersons and sales managers don’t like to admit that sales can be completed by product information. They like to think it is their personal charm, intelligence, and determination that closes sales. For the most part, that is bunk. Not only can sales be made by product information, most sales are made this way. And this is more true today than in the past because of the proliferation of “big-box stores” and other forms of product sales without the benefit of interpersonal relationships. The product information should be informative, true and complete. Ideally, it should give the prospective buyer all the information they need to buy on the spot. For most prospects shopping without assistance, clear and easy to understand information, as described above, is important.

Make the benefits of the product loud and clear. Besides the actual utility, beauty, or even fame of the product, what are you offering above and beyond? Make it clear to the customer what key benefits the product brings to them, such as guarantees, warranties, and after-sales service. Connecting with the Buyer 1Understand the motivations of the buyer. When presenting the product to the customer, bear in mind that most successful products and services are bought, not sold. They are bought by people who have a need, and believe that the product will satisfy that need. This is often the result of marketing rather than selling, however. Selling the product rather than just offering it for sale almost always involves an emotional component.

Take some time to look at the marketing side of the product. What images and promises have been created by the marketing around the product that you’re trying to sell? In what ways can you continue this theme where it seems most appropriate to maintain the promised satisfaction the marketing offers? During your presentation, confirm that your prospective buyer will want or need your product. You will need to do this through a range of methods, including observing their reactions, listening to them carefully, and asking them clear questions about what they actually need.

If you’re visiting your potential buyer’s office, look at their wall and desk. What photos, posters, or images can you see? Are there images of family, pets, vacations that will provide you with a connection to this person’s wants? Know how to open with a customer. Instead of asking the close-ended question “May I help you? “, ask the more positive, open-ended “Are you looking for something for yourself is it a gift for someone special? ” And be alert to making comments on the product before getting into a deeper discussion with the customer, such as “These long legged computer stands are really popular this summer.

Convert the customer’s motivations into the product’s characteristics. In marketing, this is known as “positioning”, and it consists of equating the product with the customer’s hopes and desires. The following positioning factors are all of importance when selling a product: Position the product in the best spectrum of the market possible. Mark H, McCormack calls this finding your “biggest bulge of buyers”, and not pitching the product too high or too low in terms of affordability and luxury. Position the facts about the product according to the person you’re selling it to. You may have a handful of different facts, but it’s up to your skill to know which of those facts best serve each individual sale. Position the facts so that they reflect the desired perception. However, don’t fudge facts or lie outright. This is about perception, not deception. Position the facts so that they transcend the product itself. This means that the desirable, positive values associated with the product sell the product and have very little to do with the product itself. Companies that excel at this include Coca-Cola, Apple, and many designer goods or labels. Understand all the aspects that feed into the end sale of a product. Advertising, merchandising, and marketing are support functions for selling. Selling is the goal of these support functions and a good salesperson needs to have a decent understanding of each of these aspects in a product’s life. Read basic texts on marketing. These will quickly bring you up to speed on many of the tactics and techniques underlying advertising, merchandising, and marketing. In addition, texts on starting a small business will often provide useful overview information of this type. Read How to understand marketing for more details. If your product is more for work than for play, learn a little about finance to quantify its benefits. If it’s for a business, learn more about accounting to explain how it will make the investors as well as the employees happy.

Be honest. Long-term lovers of your product will only come about if you’ve been honest with them. This means being transparent in your delivery of product information and also admitting your own lack of knowledge or mistakes you’ve made where needed. Don’t be afraid of honesty; it builds trust. Think like (not about) your customers. Think about what you’d like to hear and learn about the product if you were in the customer’s shoes. Don’t take the easy way out and brush your customer off when stock is low or your knowledge is sparse. Always make a genuine effort to follow up customer wants, and to physically take customers to a product, and demonstrate it, where possible. A customer given a hands-on demonstration will feel more involved in the sale and more likely to purchase than one who is told “It’s in aisle 5 that way” and given a brisk hand wave. Closing the Sale 1Close the sale.

There are many styles and methods of closing a sale. One of the most effective has the mnemonic, ABC: “Always Be Closing. ” As you confirm your prospective buyer’s interest in the product, put forward trial closes like, “Does this sound like the product you want? “. When answered in the affirmative, this may mean you have completed the sale on that product, and it is time to build the sale with related products. 2Be prepared to give customers time to consider. Appearing overly pushy is a turn-off for many modern-day buyers who do their own savvy internet research before coming to see you.

They may want to go home and do a quick online search; let them do so with your enthusiastic and supportive pitch in their mind. If you’ve been truthful, helpful, considerate, and enthusiastic and the information you’ve given them matches with what they read online, it’ll be your business they come back to for the product, or your product they’ll prefer over a competitor’s.

Improving Sales

Spread your product information. It is important to make your product information available through as many channels as possible. Today, the range of potential placements has increased a great deal thanks to the advances in communications. Give your potential buyers many possible places to find out more about your information including in the following ways: Promote your product through representatives, dealers, salesmen, radio, TV, word-of-mouth by customers, mail and email (in various forms), distribution at trade shows, seminars, telephone, fax, computer networks, product packaging, airline magazines, retail storefronts, space ads, and the Internet.

And consider the worth of product placement in movies, sports games, and other big events that are televised. Use social media. This is now a very important part of getting products out into the broader, global marketplace. Places Facebook and Pinterest can be great launching pads for your product. Use local community events. Donating your product to a local school gala for auctioning to raise school funds can be a great way to get your product known, as well as getting the goodwill from the community who recognizes your generosity.

Get creative.

Sales can only be increased by certain things over which you have control but which are not necessarily self-evident. Sometimes price changes are required; other times, you’ll need tweaks to the product, or a broadening or contracting of your product range. All of this will be evident from undertaking regular inventory checks and follow ups on sales performance. Some methods to increase sales include: Selling more of your existing products to your existing customers – which probably means new sales methods will need to be implemented. Adding new products. Adding new customers. Having an exclusive product for a set period of time that everyone wants.

Troubleshooting Poor Sales.

At regular intervals during and after the sale of your product, there should always be a review. Is the product selling well? If not, why not? Are stocks low or are you still tripping over product that has dust on it? Bear in mind the image that slow-moving or unsold products can create in the minds of a customer. Finding dust on items tells the customer the product has been there for some time and may be outdated.

Seeing the same display month in and month out suggests to the customer that the product is stale and not very popular. Always review the viability of the products with these questions: Can the product be deleted from your line if it’s not selling so well? Try not to add new products until you’ve removed the old ones or you may just have too many choices and less leverage with which to convince the potential buyer. If you’re a business owner, you also risk tying up too much of your cash in stock that has the potential to go obsolete faster than you can move it.

Can you liquidate obsolete products? Can you look back over your target market and sharpen the focus? You may have been missing the best fit within the market for your product. Re-evaluate product mix, product design, product location and selling methods if your product is in severe sales decline. EditTips Know what your competitors are doing and find ways to outsell their ideas. Does your product have added features, special warranties, or a better price? Using Independent Sales Reps (working on commission only).

They will sell your product and get paid only when the sale is consumed. Many resources exists to find them online. Make your prices low. You will sell lots of products and get as much money as you would’ve done for making your item expensive and selling very little. A database such as Microsoft Access can help you organize, reorganize, and display the information your business generates for all kinds of insights. A personal information manager (PIM) program, often part of an email program, specializes in organizing contacts.

A customer relationship management (CRM) program goes a step further by automating their use in marketing. For example, ACT! makes it very easy to get back to a potential customer every 30 days. Other computer programs, like OpenOffice. org are also extremely helpful in organization, running reports and similar tasks. EditWarnings Never let people into your home. It is better to have an Internet-run business where people don’t have direct contact with you. It may seem hard running an Internet business, but when you get going, it is definitely worth all of the work.

Lay’s, known as Walkers in the UK and Ireland, is the brand name for a number of crisps varieties as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in 1932. Over 90% of the population is familiar with the brand-name and with more than 50% of the market shares, we can definitely call them the market leader. It’s for this company that we will briefly clarify the product- and promotion policy. Product: Lay’s The brand name For the brand’s name Lay’s uses a combination of group-brand and a individual brand.

It’s a group-brand because PepsiCo doesn’t use its own name to sell the products, but they use the brand Lay’s to distribute them. Further more, Lay’s makes use of individual brands for the different flavours like there are: Lay’s Light, Lay’s Oven and Lay’s Sticks. Even though all the products belong to Lay’s, they sell them according to their different characteristics by a different name. By making use of market segmentation, Lay’s creates the possibility to expand its assortment and itself. In this way each product will receive its own identity. Assortment strategies

Line stretching Lay’s often expands their assortment by adding new flavours and new sub-groups. For example: Lay’s developed Lay’s Light and Lay’s Oven. With these groups they tried to penetrate a new group of consumers who worry about the percentage of fat that crisps contain. Lay’s Light contains 33% less fat and in the sub-group Lay’s Oven, the crisps contain 70% less fat. Line filling Lay’s completes their assortment of existing products by adding new varieties to the different groups. Since 2011, for example, they have a product variant called “Black Pepper & Sea Salt”.

In this way they obtain a more complete assortment and can they satisfy more consumers. Promotion: Lay’s Promotional campaign Lay’s as a market leader doesn’t have strong competition because they have a strong promotional campaign. The company also makes different price actions for the introduction of new products. Subsequently the price is lowered to capture the market. The consumer pays less for the same product and receives a sort of reduction. This is one of the sales promotions techniques Lay’s uses. The sales are stimulated at short term by temporal improvement of the price-value ratio.

Sometimes Lay’s offers sampling and free crisps. Lay’s also organises cash-refund actions where you get your money back by sending back the barcode of your package of Crisps. The main advantages are the low cost, the consumers information is saved in database and the involvement of the retailer is not necessary . This may lead to a horizontal effect or market expansion. At first place, Lay’s wants the customer to meet and try its product. When the customer is satisfied and buys the product again, we call it a repeat. Sometimes Lay’s also has a special offer where you get a 3rd bag for free.

They realise this by offering special promos to customers. This also is a kind of sales promotions where they offer a bigger quantity of goods for the same price. This results in an advantage in goods. Within these promotions, we can speak of a vertical effect or market effect. One will try to create more market share by creating a higher brand loyalty, user intensity and revenues. Moreover the consumers will be blocked to other brands of crisps. Possible risks are that the consumer will store their products and it won’t lead to extra consumption. Lay’s also organises saving campaigns. They have a savings campaign called Lay’s Chip Trips.

The point of this campaign is that consumers find a code on the bag of Lay’s. They can go to the site of the company and enter this code. People can save points online this way, and when they have saved enough, they can exchange there points in all kind of prices like free entrance to a theme park and free stay at a hotel. Lay’s will try to stimulate the revenues on the shorter term and bind the consumers to the brand this way. The company also organises contests. In many countries like the Netherlands, Lay’s has started a competition where people can make new flavours and present them to Lay’s. flavours are chosen by Lay’s and the consumer has to decide by voting which flavour is the best. Every consumer that votes, has the chance to win a Mini. This campaign was a great success. The finale flavours were sold 6 million times. In the Netherlands, ‘Patatje Joppie’ was the eventual winner and has appeared in the shops last February. These promotions can lead to higher revenues because one creates more users. These users can be people who buy the product for the first time or people who buy the products of the competitor.