Product Development
Introduction
A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or a need.
Services are forms of product that consist of activities, benefits or satisfactions offered for sales that are essentially intangible.
a.Product Levels
- When developing a product the product planners need to think about the product and services on three levels. The three levels are;
- Core benefit: This is what the customer is buying
- Actual product: The product planner develops product and services features, design, brand name, quality level and packaging.
- Augmented product: This is additional consumer services and benefits built around the core benefit and actual product
b.New product development
This entails developing of original products, products improvement, and product modifications and developing new products
The process involves eight main stages;
- Idea generation
- Idea screening
- Concept development and testing
- Marketing Strategy Development
- Business analysis
- Test marketing
- Product development
- Commercialization
Product Life Cycle implies that;
- Products have a life
- A firm’s positioning an differentiation strategy must change as the product, market and competitors change over time
- Each stage in the PLC poses different challenges and opportunities to the seller
- Profits rise and fall at different stages
- Products require different marketing, financial, manufacturing and purchasing strategies at each stage
This is the course of product’s sales and profit over its lifetime. It involves five stages:
