1. Product Planning: Taking the Next Step
Today, successful product management is more important than ever.
Products are created, grow, reach maturity, and decline at faster and faster speeds.
LEXUS HYBRID

2. Steps in Managing Products

3. Using Product Objectives to Decide on a Product Strategy
Objectives must be measurable, clear, unambiguous, and feasible and must indicate a specific time frame.
Objectives and strategies for individual products:
--Successful introduction of new products
--Breathing new life into mature products
MINIUSA.COM

4. Objectives for Single and Multiple Products

5. Objectives and Strategies for Multiple Products
Product line: Firm’s total product offering designed to satisfy a single need or desire of target customers
Product mix: The total set of all products a firm offers for sale

6. Objectives and Strategies for Multiple Products
Product-Line Strategies
Full-line versus limited-line strategies
Upward, downward, or two-way line stretch
Filling out or contracting a product line
Product-Mix Strategies
Width of product mix: the number of different product lines produced by firm

7. Group Activity
Think of your college or university as an organization that offers a line of different educational products.
Develop alternatives it might consider and describe how each might be accomplished and evaluated:
Upward product stretch
Downward product stretch
Two-way stretch
Filling-out strategy

8. Quality as a Product Objective
Product quality: overall ability of product to satisfy customer’s expectations
Total Quality Management (TQM): company-wide dedication to the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of all aspects of the company’s operations
MALCOLM BRIDGE
AWARD WINNERS!

9. ISO Quality Standards
ISO 9000: voluntary standards for quality management set by International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
ISO 14000: concentrate on environmental management
Six Sigma methodology: no more than 3.4 defects per million (getting it right % of the time)

10. Adding Quality to the Marketing Mix
Product: improve customer service
Place: involve suppliers and customers in improving on-time delivery
Price: lower costs and improve service at same time
Promotion: give customers information when they want and need it (not when it’s convenient for firm)

11. Dimensions of Product Quality

12. Group Activity
Conduct a brief focus group of students and find out whether consumers complain to each other about poor product quality.
--Have they ever used a Web site to express displeasure over product quality?
--If so, what was the result?

13. Discussion
Quality can mean different things for different products. What does it mean for the following?
Automobile
Pizza
Running shoes
Hair dryer
Deodorant
College education

14. Creating Product Identity: Branding Decisions
Brand: a name, term, symbol, or any other unique element that identifies one firm’s product and sets it apart from the competition.

15. A Good Brand Name: Creates a positive connotation. Is memorable.
Positions a product by conveying image or personality (Ford Mustang) or describing how it works (Drano).
Is easy to say, spell, read, and remember.
Fits the target market, product benefits, customer’s culture, and legal requirements.

16. Trademarks Legal term for a brand name, brand mark, or trade character
--Trademarks legally registered by a government obtain protection for exclusive use in that country.
--Symbol in the U.S.: ®
--Common-law protection: the firm has used the name and established it over a period of time.

17. The Importance of Branding
Brand equity: a brand’s value to its organization over and above the value of the generic version of the product
Brand meaning: the beliefs and associations a consumer has about the brand

18. The Brand Equity Pyramid

19. The Importance of Branding (cont’d)
Brand equity provides competitive advantage: the power to capture and hold onto a larger share of the market and to sell at prices with higher profit margins
Brand extensions: new products sold with the same brand name

20. Discussion
Brand equity means a brand enjoys customer loyalty, perceived quality, and brand-name awareness.
--What brands are you loyal to?
--What element of the product creates brand loyalty and thus brand equity?

21. Branding Strategies Individual brands vs. family brands
National and store brands
Generic brands: no branding

22. Branding Strategies (cont’d)
Licensing: one firm sells the right to use a legally protected brand name for a specific purpose and for a specific period of time
Co-branding: combines two brands

23. Creating Product Identity: Packaging and Labeling Decisions
Package: the covering or container for a product that provides product protection, facilitates product use and storage, and supplies important marketing communication

24. Designing Effective Packaging
Effective packaging considers:
Packaging of other brands in same product category
Choice of packaging material
Environmental impact
Shape and color
Graphic information

25. Labeling Regulations
Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1966 aims at making labels more helpful to consumers by providing useful information.
Food and Drug Administration requires food labels to tell how much fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, calories, carbohydrates, protein, trans fats, and vitamins are in each product serving.

26. Organizing for Effective Product Management
Management of Existing Products
Brand managers
Product category managers
Market managers

27. Organizing for New-Product Development
Venture teams: specialists in different areas who work together to focus on new-product development
“Skunk works”: small and isolated group in remote location that functions with minimal supervision