Marketing update for 3/4-3/24

So for class on 3/4 we had our mid-term exam which covered all material up to that point, I did much better than I had expected and got a 98% only missing one question! There after we covered new product design and development. There are six types of new products New-to-the-World, New Product Lines, Product Line Addition, Improvements or Revisions, Repositioned Products, Lower-priced Products.  New product success factors are long term commitment, company specific approach, Capitalize on experience, and establish an environment.  The new product development process is as follows,coming up with a new product strategy, idea generation, idea screening, Business analysis, developing, test marketing,commercialization, and you have the new product. Idea generation for new products can come from a variety of places, like customers,Employees, distributors, Competitors, vendors, research and development, and/or consultant. Tips for New Product Development are... Disperse R & D around the globe, keep teams small and empower employees, flatten hierarchy, encourage generation of crazy new ideas, and to welcome mistakes. A lot of times we can use brainstorming which is The process of getting a group to think of unlimited ways to vary a product or solve a problem.

For class on 3/17 we ended up having class cancelled so we did a discussion about a study case online instead of class. The discussion was about the novelty candy market and a company called Kandy Kastle. We also talked about the product called Spin Pop and had to determine which category of new product we feel it would fit under. I decided that since there was nothing else like it on the market that I would say it's a new to the world product, although some classmates felt it would be more of a product revision or improvement since it's still a sucker but I feel that since the product is not only a sucker but a device that spins and rotates the sucker and nothing similar to it was around that it was a new to the world product. We also discussed how Kandy Kastle is integrating Hello Kitty into their products and why that is an important product line. For example, it is a well established trademark that creates instant recognition and that is very popular with children and little girls so it is a huge part of their product line.

Then my last class on 3/24 we covered marketing channels and channels of distribution. Channels for consumer products, producer, agent or brokers, wholesaler, retailers, consumers. Channels for business products: producer, agent or broker, industrial distributor and consumer. A marketing channel is a set of interdependent organizations that ease the transfer of ownership as products move from point of origin to the consumer. One aspect of a marketing channel Is specialization and division of labor which creates greater efficiency, provides lower costs, achieves economies of scale, this process aids producers who lack the resources to market directly, and it builds good relationships with customers. Marketers also have to overcome discrepancies. There are four different types of discrepancies, the first is a discrepancy of quantity. Which is the difference between the amount of a product produced and the amount that the end user wants to buy. Then there is a discrepancy of assortment which is the lack of all the items a customer needs to receive full satisfaction of a product. Temporal discrepancies are situations that occur when a product is produced but the customer is not ready to buy it, a good example of this is seasonal holiday products for christmas or Halloween. Spatial discrepancy is the difference between location of the producer and the location of a widely scattered market. An example of alternative channel arrangements are multiple channels which is the use of two or more channels to distribute the same product to the target markets. There are 3 different levels of distribution intensity, the first is intensive which is aimed at having the product available in every outlet possible then there is selective which is achieved by screening dealers to eliminate all but a few stores within a given area. Lastly exclusive distribution establishes one or a few dealers in a given area. The logistical components of the supply chain are product scheduling, order processing, inventory control, warehousing, and transportation. The trends of supply chain management are advanced computer technology, outsourcing of logistical functions, and finally electronic distribution.