MODULE 8: NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Product development describes the entire process of bringing a product to the market. The process
can include identifying a product concept, seeking market feedback about the idea, creating a
prototype, preparing marketing and sales campaign, building the product and releasing it to
customers, and making adjustments based on market feedback

Product development typically refers to all stages involved in bringing a product from concept or idea
through market release and beyond. In other words, product development incorporates a product's
entire journey

Product development is a crucial part of business strategy and innovation. Without effective product
development, you don't have anything valuable to offer your target audience. Most products or s
services go through some sort of product development process consisting of several steps to facilitate
creation, testing, and launch. Businesses use product development to ensure their product meets the
needs and wants of their customers, helping them remain competitive and grow market share.

Why Product Development Important

Product development, is the Me-blood of companies and societies. The product could be a physical
product such as an automobile, smartphone, or coffee maker. It could also be services such as new IT
solution, new manufacturing process, or a new real estate marketing concept

All call product development actions provide the following:

- New value for customers
- Improved society
- Continued existence of the company

The first and most important reason for any new development is to provide new value to the
customer. Without this, there is no reason for them to trade their money for the new device.
However, if the product or service offers overwhelming value, then customers will flock to it

This new and increasing value is what keeps companies growing if there is no new to offer customers,
the firm wilts and eventually dies. If the value offered is not increasing, then the company is losing
ground in the market as its competitors increase their value in the market.

Improve society

Many new products are simply an incremental improvement over the previous version with only
some new features or slight faster performance. These products may sustain the company by offering
enough new value to generate additional revenue, but they are hardly a boon to society.

Continued Existence and Growth of the Company

New products and services are the lifeblood of any company. Without them, the firm withers on the
vine and either dies or is absorbed by another firm. Society is well-served by the continuance of these
companies from the employment of the individuals who work there (who are also consumers), and
the support for society at-large in the form of taxation and charitable giving.

Companies (and civilizations) have little choice but grow and improve if they want to move from
survival to thriving. The new products and services created and provided by companies of all sizes
provide the mechanism for this growth and improvement. What are you and your firm doing to
improve?
What Makes a Product Best?
The following elements combine to create the best product:

■Reliability - Reliability can be measured only if it is expressed in quantitative terms. Probability and
time require consideration for measurement of reliability. Whether a product is reliable or not
depends on the probability of its failure during a given period and the time span for which it provides
the rated performance.

■Safety- the capacity of a product to be considered safe for its intended use. In this context, policies
aimed to safeguard individuals from the dangers of thousands of everyday goods are sometimes
referred to as product safety. In the event that a product is not safe, it can lead to severe and even
life-threatening harm. Strangling, amputations, broken bones, choking risks, lacerations, and other
injuries are all examples of potential harm from products. Because of this, producers must make an
effort to ensure that all items are safe for consumers. Every business's stage of the production
process is critical to a company's commitment to product safety. When it comes to safety and
preventing injuries, it's always essential to take precautions. Consumers and sellers alike benefit from
product safety. Engineers that specialize in product safety conduct in-depth investigations into
workplace illnesses, accidents, and injuries that may have a connection to a product's use. It is up to
them to find strategies to prevent or limit potential hazards while on the job and to conduct research
to evaluate the safety levels of items.

■Design quality - Design quality refers to the quality grade or quality level of the required
design determined according to the user's use purpose, economic status, and internal conditions of
the enterprise. It reflects the degree of perfection of design objectives, expressed in various
specifications and standards.

Design quality includes three basic processes:

- Define what constitutes the applicability of users. This process is also known as market research
quality. The design objectives should be determined through the information obtained from market
research.

- Selecting the concept of product or service to reflect the user needs to be determined by market
research. The result of this step is called conception quality or concept quality, that is, conceiving the
product to improve the design purpose and strive to adapt the expected quality characteristics to the
actual needs of the market.

- Translate the selected product concept into detailed product specifications. The result of this
process is also called specification quality, that is, the degree to which the actual design specification
meets the needs of the applicability level.

■Quality Compliance- is "the action or fact of complying with a wish or command." In other words, if
an authoritative body sets some rules to abide by, companies and manufacturers need to stick to
them when creating and bringing a product to market. It has to be made according to an order, set of
rules or request.

Both quality assurance and compliance are important for products and businesses because they
ultimately improve them in many ways. Their products or services continue to get better, customers
therefore use them more and see them as reliable, there is less waste in materials due to improved
efficiency in production, and therefore money and time is saved.

■Efficient brand positioning - Brand positioning is the process of positioning your brand in the mind
of your customers. More than a tagline or a fancy logo, brand positioning is the strategy used to set
your business apart from the rest.
Effective brand positioning happens when a brand is perceived as favorable, valuable, and credible to
the consumer. The sum of those three becomes unique to your business, and as a result, your
customers carve out a place for you in their minds.

Standard Stages of Progress in Product Development

There are many steps to this process, and it's not the same path for every organization, but these are
the most common stages through which products typically progress:

■Identifying a market need.

Products solve problems. So identifying a problem that needs solving (or a better way of being solved)
is where this journey should begin. Conversations with potential customers, surveys, and other user
research activities can inform this step.

Market needs refers to the specific requirements or demands of consumers that a product or service
must fulfill in order to be successful in the market. These needs can be identified through market
research and analysis of consumer behavior and preferences.

Examples of Market needs include:

1.) Convenience - consumers often seek products or services that are easy to use and save time.
2.) Quality Consumers expect products or services to be high quality and meet their expectations.
3.) Affordability-Consumers look for product and services that are reasonably priced and offer good
value for money.
4.) Innovation-Consumers are attracted to products or services that offer new and unique features or
benefits.
5.) Sustainability-Consumers are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of products
and services and seek sustainable options.
6.) Personalization - Consumers want products and services that are tailored to their individual needs
and preferences.
7.) Accessibility - Consumers require products or services that are easily accessible and available when
and where they need them.

By understanding and meeting these market needs, businesses can develop successful products and
services that meet the demands of their target audience.

■Quantifying the opportunity.

Not every problem is problematic enough to warrant a product-based solution. However, the pain it
causes and the number of people or organizations it impacts can determine whether it's a worthy
problem to solve and if people are willing to pay for a solution (be it with money or their data).

■Conceptualizing the product.

Some solutions may be obvious, while others may be less intuitive. Here's where the team puts in the
effort and applies their creativity to devising how a product might serve its needs.

Conceptualizing a product is an important step in the product development process Steps how to
conceptualize a product:

1. Identify the problem or need-start by identifying a problem or need that a product can solve or
fulfill. This can be done through market research, customer feedback, or personal experience.
2. Brainstorm ideas -Once you have identified the problem or need, brainstorm ideas for your product
can address it. Consider different features, designs, and functionalities that could make your product
unique and appealing to customers.
3. Create a product concept-bases on your brainstorming, create a product concept that outlined the
key features, benefits and target audience, this can be done through sketches, diagrams or written
descriptions.
4. Conduct Market Research - To validate your product concepts, include surveys, focus groups, or
interviews with potential customer to gather feedbacks and insights.
5. Refine the concept - based on feedback from your market research, refine your product concept to
better meet the needs and preferences of your target audience. This may involve making changes to
the design, features or functionality of your product.
6. Develop a prototype-Once you have a refined product concept, develop a prototype of your
product to rest and refine further. This can be done through 3D printing, or other prototyping
methods.

By following these steps, you can effectively conceptualize a product and move forward with product
development with a clear understanding of your target audience and their needs.

■Validating the solution.

Before too much time is spent prototyping and design, whether the proposed solution is viable should
be tested. Of course, this can still happen at the conceptual level. Still, it is an early test to see
whether the particular product idea is worth pursuing further or if it will be rejected or only lightly
adopted by the target user.

■Building the product roadmap.

With a legitimate product concept in hand, product management can build out the product roadmap,
identifying which themes and goals are central to develop first to solve the most significant pain
points and spark adoption.

■Developing a minimum viable product (MVP).

This initial version of the product needs just enough functionality to be used by customers.

MVP is a product development strategy that involves creating a basic version of a product with only
the essential features needed to satisfy early customers and gather feedback for further development.
The goal of an MVP is to test the product concept and validate assumptions about the market,
customer needs, and product features before investing significant time and resources into a full-scale
product development.

■Releasing the MVP to users.

Experiments can gauge interest, prioritize marketing channels and messages, and begin testing the
waters around price sensitivity and packaging. It also kicks off the feedback loop to bring ideas,
complaints, and suggestions into the prioritization process and populate the product backlog.

■Ongoing iteration based on user feedback and strategic goals.

With a product in the market, enhancements, expansions, and changes will be driven by user
feedback via various channels. Over time the product roadmap will evolve based on this learning and
the objectives the company sets for this product. This work never ends until it's finally time to sunset
a product at the end of its lifecycle.

A product development strategy is a comprehensive plan that guides a company in creating, testing,
and marketing new products or improving existing ones. It encompasses the entire process, from
initial ideation to product launch and beyond, and helps the product team understand the target
audience, competition, and market conditions. The product development strategy aims to ensure that
the company delivers value to its customers while achieving growth and success in the marketplace.

Product Development Strategies:

The game of business has various strategies, and you should understand before you start playing.

Below are some common product development strategies employed by product-led organizations
around the world:
 Price-driven - Creating significant value allows you to charge a premium for your product or
services. Apple charges a premium for its products while continuously increasing its market
share.

The pricing strategy can also be applied in different geographical markets, where supply and demand
forces are biased toward the seller and the customer may be willing to pay more than a customer
elsewhere. Customer-driven pricing is contrasted with competition based pricing - setting prices
based on competitors' prices and strategies-and cost-based pricing, in which a company concentrates
on reaching a margin target with little regard to analyzing customers' perceived value.

 Innovation - Being on the leading edge enables you to develop and charge for the most
innovative alternative on the market. For example, Tesla created the most attractive electric car
globally, and now customers eagerly await new models.

An innovative product can cut through a stagnant market and meet customer needs in new, exciting
ways. At its heart, innovation allows businesses to stay relevant and drive growth.

As a business leader, it can be challenging to foster innovative thinking within your firm, understand
what innovation opportunities exist, and how to execute them with your current capabilities.

Product innovation is the process of creating a new product-or improving an existing one-to meet
customers' needs in a novel way.

 Time to market- Lead the pack by solving a problem differently. This approach can create a new
market.

Product launches are perhaps the most important events on a brand's calendar. Getting a product
launch right - meaning launching the product to an eager and willing market - requires coordination
from top to bottom in an organization. It's likely that everyone will play a role, and bringing together
so many different parts of the company to work toward a single goal can take
time.

The definition of time to market is simple enough - it is the time it takes for your company to go from
initial idea to product launch. If your management team agrees to move forward with a new idea on
March 1st, for example, and the product goes live one year later, your time to market would be 12
months.

The simplicity of the definition of time to market belies the complexity of improving performance in
this area. Too often, attempts to optimize time to market result in corners being cut and mistakes
being made. The goal is not to rush a product out with no regard for the importance of the research
and development process. Rather, the aim is to hit the market quickly with something that your brand
will be proud to stand behind.

 Customer-oriented - Use data to generate customer insights and develop products customers
want. Amazon continuously refines its offerings to increase customer loyalty.

Customer orientation is a business approach in which a company solves for the customer first. It's all
about focusing on helping customers meet their goals. Essentially, the needs and wants of the
customer are valued over the needs of the business. For customer service, this means your support
team is focused on meeting customer needs.

 Platform- Develop a flexible, cost-effective, and scalable solution. For example, launching an e-
commerce business is faster and simpler thanks to platforms like Shopify.

A platform strategy is an approach to entering a market which revolves around the task of allowing
platform participants to benefit from the presence of others. In traditional competitive strategy, it is
generally assumed that customers can determine their willingness to pay for the product or service
independently. This assumption breaks down when studying platforms, as platform participants'
participation is interdependent with the choices of other users. This is why the formulation of a
platform strategy requires somewhat distinct tools to help platform entrepreneurs and managers
tackle the challenges of value creation and value capture.

Steps in Product Development:

The following steps apply not only to new products but also to evolving existing ones.

Think of product development strategy like a road trip. Along the way, you'll encounter gas stations,
restaurants, hotels, parking lots, radars, tolls, and more. As the driver, you decide what you need and
make decisions based on the trip's current situation. The same goes for product strategy - you're the
driver.

Keep in mind that these six steps aren't a waterfall approach. They represent the elements you need
for success, but the order and frequency with which you visit them will vary according to your current
challenges, needs, and goals.

A good product development strategy focuses on understanding customers and creating value for
them.

1. Research

Explore the market to identify opportunities for creating products. This can be done using various
methods, such as interviews, market research, search trends, and customer feedback.

The goal is to find something that is desirable to customers, business-viable, and technologically
feasible. Define the market you want to penetrate, then understand its size, mechanics, style
(innovative, conservative), available options, and current satisfaction level.

Research is critical to product development. Before you begin developing anything, we recommend
you gather as much information as possible about market trends, customer needs, and emerging
technologies. Then, you can leverage that research to begin generating ideas. Idea generation
involves cross-functional brainstorming to develop innovative concepts for new products or
improvements to existing ones.

2. Ideate

Analyze the competition to understand their strategy, market share, pricing model, target audience,
and weaknesses. This information will help you evaluate how to differentiate your product.

Diverge before converging; use "how might we" questions to explore the problem space and imagine
potential solutions. Employ techniques such as the crazy eights method to generate ideas, then
narrow them down to test with the market.

3. Define the product scope

Once you understand the problem you want to focus on, the value to deliver, and the business value
to collect, you're ready to define the product scope.

Be sure to identify a specific audience, problem, and value proposition. I recommend using a lean
canvas to keep everyone on the same page and maintain simplicity.

4. Create a roadmap

After completing the previous steps, you need to align on the next steps. Create a product roadmap
to provide direction to teams while empowering them to make daily decisions.
5. Experiment

Recognize that most ideas will fail, so test your assumptions and explore as many solutions as possible
before development.

6. Develop the product

Building your product isn't a static process that you delegate to your product teams. This step is
dynamic, and you will likely repeat ideation, experimentation, and development several times before
getting it right.

Start by making small investments and testing the results with a portion of your audience. Inspect and
adapt as often as necessary. Your goal is to create a product users want and will benefit from.

7. Penetrate the market

Define your go-to-market approach and execute it. A good rule of thumb is to start small, learn from
real customers, and grow gradually.

Aim high, but begin with small steps. Avoid making a full-blown launch; the longer you take to launch,
the higher the risks. Select a specific audience, focus on it, and then gradually expand to a larger
audience.

During the development and testing stage, your cross-functional product development team also
begins planning its entry into the market. This stage involves determining your marketing, pricing,
distribution, and sales strategies. Depending on the product and market, it can be a gradual rollout or
a big launch event.

-------------------
Lacking a product development strategy ensures failure. Having a bad product development strategy
ensures failure. Setting the product development strategy in stone ensures failure.

There are many ways to get the strategy wrong and only a few ways to get it right. Stay vigilant to
changes around you and adapt your steps accordingly. Failing to do so could be fatal to your
business.

Your product development strategy should establish constraints to concentrate on what you believe
will lead to success. As you learn, you will realize that some things aren't as you initially thought. Step
back, inspect and adapt, rinse, and repeat.

Manage your expectations. Don't change your product development strategy every other day. The
strategy evolves slowly. You may make minor tweaks every quarter and conduct a significant review
yearly.

Keep it simple. Set the product development strategy, make progress, learn, adapt, and excel in the
product world.

Who is part of the product development team?

Developing a product takes a village.

Product engineers and managers rub shoulders with marketers and salespeople, while designers and
stakeholders bounce ideas off customer support and finance teams. Some roles might be combined,
while other individuals may wear multiple hats.
A product development team typically consists of:

1. Product managers: Define the product vision, strategy, and goals. They act as the bridge between
the development team and other stakeholders.

Product manager responsibilities: Key tasks

In essence, product managers are responsible for the success of a product and work to ensure that
products meet customer expectations as well as business goals. As such, they:

- conduct research to figure out customer needs

- develop a product strategy
- oversee product design and development
- manage all aspects of the product's life cycle

However, the tasks and responsibilities of a product manager can vary depending on many factors,
such as the company's size, the product type they are working on, and the industry. So, what you'll be
responsible for as a PM will depend on the specific role you take up.

2. Designers: Create the product's visual and interactive elements and typically include both user
experience and user interface (designers).

A Product Designer is a professional who is in charge of translating the wants and needs of consumers
into product design features. They must have a creative eye, be able to think outside the box in order
to come up with new ideas or solutions that meet customer expectations, and create digital or print
drawings as well as design fully-functional products.

3. Developers and engineers: Build the product using the design and technical specifications.

Product Development Engineers identify company goals to conceptualize, design, and test new
products. They also formulate manufacturing specifications and perform design analyses to ensure all
products meet industry standards and guidelines for functionality.

Product Development Engineer Responsibilities:

- Performing market research to understand market requirements for new product development.
- Identifying the needs of the company and integrating market research to determine the needs and
goals of new products.
- Conceptualizing new product ideas by using CAD software to design prototypes.
- Fabricating prototypes for testing.
- Testing products throughout the design process to troubleshoot any potential problems.
- Sampling different materials, manufacturing processes, design tolerances, and other factors to find
the best ones that suit the new product brief.
- Fine-tuning designs until they are ready for production.
- Delivering product specifications and procedures to the manufacturing team for production
purposes.
- Analyzing existing products to identify areas for improvement and updating current documentation.
- Developing quality control criteria and safety guidelines and ensuring that all team members adhere
to them.

4. Marketing and sales: Help create market strategies, pricing models, and distribution plans to
promote the product.

The job of a sales and marketing executive is to drive company revenue by designing effective
strategies for both marketing initiatives as well as customer retention. They are responsible for
implementing these plans, which includes tracking data relative to their success or failures. Sales and
marketing executives also create performance reports that can be utilized in future campaigns moving
forward.
Sales and Marketing Job Duties and Responsibilities:

-They provide superior customer service by making information instantly available

- Persists in sales even if the company is facing failure.
- Demonstrates products and services as considered necessary by management and clients.
- Schedules meetings and appointments as necessary
- Answers questions from clients
- Makes product knowledge instantly available to himself and other salespeople via various resources
- They find different ways to sell products in the face of a down market
- Researches client base in order to find new customers and accordingly sells them.
- They make a plan to gain customers and retain them according to guarantees and warranties.
- Creates and analyze a plan for engaging the target customers market
- Analyzes the competition in order to create a plan for making engagement
- It makes the product appeal to the target audience.

5. Customer support: Provide insights into customer needs or issues that can influence product
development.

Customer Support refers to a set of practices and procedures that seek to assist customers who
require special assistance. They might have questions about your product or business or be running
into a product or service issue. Customer support is the process of solving any customer challenges
and pain points immediately and effectively via phone, email, live chat, tickets, and social media.

6. Finance: Manage the budget, track expenses, allocate resources, and any other financial aspect of
the project.

A finance department is the unit of a business responsible for obtaining and handling any monies on
behalf of the organization. The department controls the income and expenditure in addition to
ensuring effective business running with minimum disruptions. Besides the traditional roles of
handling the payroll, income and expenses, finance department responsibilities also include economic
analysis to improve key business strategies.

7. Stakeholders: Provide input into the product development process. Their feedback and support can
impact its success.

A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by the
business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its investors, employees, customers,
and suppliers.
 MODULE 9: MARKETING PLANNING AND CONTROL

MARKETING PLANNING
Planning is an essential activity for any project, including marketing.

Without a proper plan in place, an otherwise successful campaign can turn into a chaotic mess. With
the increasing volume of tasks teams deal with, you need a plan to coordinate your efforts and
maximize resources.

Fortunately, with the help of modem project management platforms, planning your marketing
activities isn't that complicated.

Marketing planning is the process of strategically coordinating your organization's future marketing
events to maximize results. It often involves the development of a strategic document that outlines
relevant details about the plan, including:
• The core marketing goal
• Marketing research
• A description of each buyer persona
• Specific initiatives
• Team responsibilities

Marketing planning helps you understand the current state of your business, market, and competitors
and find potential opportunity gaps you can fill. It'll also give you a roadmap of action to get better
results.

TYPES OF MARKETING PLANNING

There are two types of marketing planning:

■Long-term marketing planning: Long-term marketing planning is marketing planning for more than
one year. It is the top management's responsibility. This marketing planning

sets future objectives and strategies, and it prepares a framework in which short-term plans are
created. Long-term marketing planning includes, for instance, the selection of a price policy, a
distribution channel and media advertising.

■Short-term marketing planning: Short-term marketing planning is marketing planning for less than
a year, like bi-annual or annual plans. It is the responsibility of the mid- management. The short-term
plans help to solve recurring issues.

Most companies renew their marketing plan once a year but assess the plan's performance and adjust
it for the rest of the year.
STEPS IN MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS
Marketing planning can involve two main phases. The first phase consists of analyzing the current
situation to decide which area requires more focus. During this phase, you evaluate past promotions
to verify their success, analyze the competitors and determine objectives. Then, in the second phase,
you create and develop marketing strategies.

There are several steps to follow during the marketing planning process:

1. Understand the current business situation.

The objective of marketing planning is to achieve the company's business goals. To do so, it is crucial
that you understand these goals and the current business situation, including the things that could
stop you from achieving those goals. You can:

- Analyze the opportunities of different markets or audiences

- Make some client research to understand how they make their buying decision.
- Research your brand.

2. Understand your target client.

It is essential to know how your client thinks and prioritize certain things to help you understand how
they choose a new product or provider. When you know what they are looking for, you can position
yourself as such and have them choose you. You can also research how they look for their products or
providers to know how to provide them your information.

3. Position your brand

A successful positioning is one that attracts people's attention to your brand and shows your
competitive advantage. You can start by understanding your differences from the competition or
differentiators. Differentiators must be true, provable and relevant. Once you identified them, you
can write messages to your audience. Remember that different audiences are looking for various
aspects of your brand, so adapt your messages by focusing on the benefits your target
wants to see.

4. Define and refine your offer

As your clients' needs change, you want to adapt your offer and answer those needs. This step is
guided by the previous analysis of your current business situation, competition and clients.

5. Choose your marketing techniques

Now that you understand your target audience, you know how and where they look for information.
Knowing this allows you to use their preferred channel to reach them. That way, you can make your
brand and expertise more visible. It is recommended to use both online and offline marketing
techniques to gain better visibility. You can also use diverse content for the different sales funnel
levels, from attracting prospects to turning them into clients.

6. Adapt your tools and skills to your techniques

If you realize you need to add a new technique to your marketing planning, you may need new tools.
These tools may include a website, marketing automation, social media, or search engine
optimization.

You may also need to learn new skills to build your new strategy. You can upgrade your skills or hire
outside professional help.

7. Write down your plan

Translate your strategy into a written plan detailing the actions to take with a timeline. This plan will
help you evaluate your progress. Your plan includes a marketing calendar and a marketing budget.
The calendar covers the period during which you implement your plan, usually a quarter or year. It
details the scheduled actions and helps you to stay consistent. The budget shows the cost necessary
to cover the tools you identified earlier. Make sure to leave some room for contingencies, like five to
ten percent of the entire budget.
A good marketing plan consists of your value proposition, information about your target market, your
positioning in the market, advertising strategies, distribution channels, and budget allotted for the
plan.

BENEFITS OF STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING

A business firm has to make various marketing decisions. These decisions actually emerge from the
complex interaction of a large number of persons carrying out diverse responsibilities in the
marketing organization. Being part and parcel of the over-all management, the marketing executives
are deeply involved in the process of planning. Marketing planning defines the role and
responsibilities of marketing executives in such a way as to achieve the goals of the firm.

It lays emphasis on the allocation of marketing resources in the best and most economical way. It
gives an intelligent direction of marketing operations. Marketing planning involves the preparation of
policies, programs, budgets etc., in advance for carrying out the various activities and functions of
marketing to attain the marketing goals.

• Increasing accountability: inform your marketing team of the exact activities they're responsible for.

• Minimizing risk: study potential threats and problems beforehand.

• Measuring your progress: compare your actual results with your baseline plan to measure
performance.

• Making more informed decisions: get valuable insights from your market and make smarter
decisions.

• Getting every team member on the same page: keep your marketing team aligned throughout the
entire process.

• Marketing planning allows you to be proactive: When you plan ahead, you are more in control of
your marketing. It implies that you can maximize its impact and change plans when necessary.

Companies need to be proactive in staying one step ahead of their competition and not just rely on
industry trends. Developing creative, cutting-edge marketing strategies is essential for standing out
from the competition and making sure that your business remains at the forefront of marketing
efforts.

Doing research and keeping a close watch on what other companies are doing can provide invaluable
insights into ways you can improve or enhance your strategy, allowing you to move forward with
confidence in an ever-evolving landscape of marketing practices.

• Identifies your Target Market: Through market segmentation, an effective Marketing Plan will
enable you to identify and understand your ideal customers, their needs, problems and values; and
how your product/service meets their needs or addresses their problems in a way that creates value.

• Identifies your Competitors: An effective Marketing Plan includes the identification of your
competitors from a SWOT perspective so that you can determine how you can improve or augment
your offering to be favorably compared to the offerings of your competitors.

• Supports ROI on Marketing Spend: An effective Marketing Plan includes the definition of specific
and measurable marketing goals, time-frames and activities. This ensures that you only invest in
promotional activities that drive a positive ROI, ie: promotional activities that match your target
market's purchase behaviors, etc.
⚫ Sets out Strategy to Target Ideal Customers: An effective Marketing Plan utilizes market research
to map out a strategy to reach your target audience, including the messages, channels and tools that
you will use. Again, this will prevent investment in marketing activities that don't support your
defined strategy.

MARKETING COMPETITIVENESS

Whatever product a marketer has to offer in the market, one thing is sure, it's going to get
competition. It depends on the product type and marketplace what degree of competition it'll get. For
the success of any business, it is necessary to compete effectively with other businesses. The best way
to mitigate competition is to develop marketing competitiveness. Marketing Competitiveness is the
ability of a marketing organization to deliver better value to customers than competitors.

Competitiveness means different things to different organizations. Some marketers view marketing
competitiveness as the ability to persuade customers to choose their offerings over alternatives,
while others view marketing competitiveness as the ability to deliver better values to customers than
competitors.

"Marketing Competitiveness is the ability of a business to improve continuously marketing process

capabilities and deliver better value to customers than competitors."

It is the ability of a business to add more values for its customers than competitors and attain a
position of relative advantage. It leads to a situation where a business has an advantage over its
competitors by being able to offer better value, quality, and service.

Customer values are the combination of several benefits offered for a given price, and comprises all
aspects of the physical product and the accompanying services.

Types of Competition in Marketing

1) Direct competition

In the marketing world, direct rivalry is the most familiar type of competition. Consider two fashion
labels (direct competitors) producing comparable shirts at similar prices while maintaining distinct
values and distinguishing their products from each other-this illustrates the direct competitors
perfectly. By understanding market trends and customer needs, companies must be able to create
effective marketing campaigns and outcompete other businesses in the same target market to
succeed.
EX: Digital companies also see direct competition. For example, Instagram and Snapchat offer very
similar features, like disappearing stories and direct messaging, to their target audiences.

2) Indirect competition

When two or more organizations provide similar products and services but hold distinct values and
ambitions, this is recognized as indirect competition. Even businesses in various industries can still be
indirectly competitive with one another-for instance, an airline website and a tourism platform
providing flight reservation services can be competing for the same customer base, and hence can be
indirect competitors. Therefore, indirect competitors need to conduct market research, find the
relevant marketing mix and design a marketing strategy as per their values and goals after doing a
comprehensive competitive analysis.

EX: Similarly, consider a client who needs to buy gifts for a birthday party. One store sells clothing. A
store across the street sells jewelry. Despite the different products, the two stores are competing for
the same customer.

3) Replacement competition
Replacement competition pits two distinct companies from diverse industries against one another in
order to capture a customer's attention. Take, for example, the battle between a Netflix streaming
service and a book publisher. Customers now have the option of whether they'd like to spend their
spare time engrossed in their favorite show or reading an enthralling novel-making these unrelated
businesses compete with each other will take precedence over leisure time. Promotions around social
media platforms.

WAYS TO IMPROVE MARKETING COMPETITIVENESS

 Customer values - Customer values should be viewed not only in terms of product
characteristics, but also in terms of processes which deliver the product. Deliver better and more
value by doing something unique for your customers. Don't just compete on price, instead
differentiate your product or service as something your competitors can't offer.

 Identify and Promote USP - Unique Selling Proposition is something that sets a product apart
from its competitors in the eyes of existing customers as well as new customers. Marketers are
required to identify USP of their product and effectively communicate it with the target
audience.

 Cost efficient operations - Business is required to be organized and operated efficiently, so that
the cost of production and distribution be minimized.

Operational efficiency in the investment markets is typically centered around transaction costs
associated with investments. Operational efficiency in the investment markets can be compared to
general business practices for operational efficiency in production. Operationally efficient
transactions are those that are exchanged with the highest margin, meaning an investor pays the
lowest fee to earn the highest profit.

 Customer delight - Business organizations must provide proper customer services to delight its
customers.

From a company perspective, it's important to note that customer delight is the duty of all employees
who will come in contact with customers and prospects. A customer may have a positive user
experience, but that can quickly be overshadowed by a negative experience encountered with the
invoicing team.

The best way to ensure customer delight internally is to establish a customer-centric culture: always
be asking what is best for the customer experience.
Customer delight is not something that exists on a grand scale between businesses, either. As
consumers, we are all constantly entrenched in situations involving our experiences with brands and
companies. For example, think about the last purchase you made from a store.

 Recognize Customers' Needs - To increase your competitiveness is to be aware of the needs of

your customers and to handle them much better than your competitors. Therefore, instead of
just marketing and trying to sell your products or services, you should work to meet the needs
and problems of customers.

Make a phone call, survey, etc. with them to find out what their customer needs are. you can use
communication channels.

 Apply Innovation - In a constantly changing world, the demands and expectations of your
customers will also change. For this reason, give importance to continuous innovation and
improvement in your products and services by making innovation a part of your company
culture. In this way, a company that is the first to change, renew and improve its business
processes will be ahead of its competitors.

 Define Yourself and Your Brand - Telling stories is a great way to stand out from the competition.
Most people aren't creative enough to clearly communicate their work in an authentic way that
appeals to readers and potential customers. The best ideas come when you use the right words
to describe your brand, company or product. That's why you need to create creative stories
around your products. Introduce yourself well with these stories. Because people prefer to buy
products or services from companies they love and trust.

 Provide Customer Service - Establish a customer service department to provide pre-sales and
post-sales support to your customers. Your customer service staff should always have a strategy
for resolving potential customers' problems in a courteous and respectful manner. At the same
time, it should be able to answer questions from customers dearly and precisely.

The above points can lead a business to a situation where it has a competitive advantage over its
competitors by being able to offer better value, quality, and service.

CUSTOMER VALUE CONCEPTS

We are living in a world that is most unstable and dynamic. World is not only changing but the rate of
change is accelerating. We are experiencing change in our daily life and in marketplace too. Customer
needs, wants, expectations are changing more rapidly, customers are increasingly demanding better
quality and reliability in products and services; new products and services are coming to market more
quickly, competition is getting more intense and global; and technology is changing rapidly.

Businesses are operating in an uncertain, highly competitive, and highly complex environment. Not
only small but big players are also facing difficulties and challenges. Top companies are losing market
share and new companies are taking their place. In cell-phone industry Nokia was the market leader,
but it is not so today, Samsung took its place.

"Customer value is a customer's perceived preference for and evaluation of those product attributes,
attribute performances, and consequences arising from use that facilitate (or block) achieving the
customer's goals and purposes in use situations".

Customer value is the difference between the values the customer gains from owning and using a
product and the cost of obtaining the product.

Customer value is the difference between total customer value and total customer cost. Total
customer value is the sum of product value, service value, personnel value, and image value. Total
customer cost is the sum of monetary cost, time cost, physics cost, and energy cost.
TYPES OF VALUE

1.) Functional Value

It is concerned with the extent to which a product is useful, has desired characteristics, and performs
a desired function.

 Appropriate features and characteristics - quality, aesthetics, creativity, and customization.

 Appropriate performance - performance quality, reliability, and service-support outcomes.

 Appropriate outcomes - effectiveness, operational benefits, and environmental benefits.

For example - Apple focus mainly on creating appropriate features and attributes. Ford focus on
performance, and Pfizer focus on appropriate outcomes and consequences.

2) Experimental Value

It is concerned with the extent to which a product creates appropriate feelings, experiences and
emotions for the customer. For example-most restaurants focus on sensory values like aesthetics,
aromas, ambiance, feel or tone. Organizations in travel or entertainment focus on creating emotional
values like - pleasure, fun, excitement and adventure.

3.) Symbolic or Expressive Value

It is concerned with the extent to which customers associate psychological meaning to a product.
Some products appeal to customer's self-concept and self-worth. Branded products like BMW, Rolex,
etc. are purchased because of their status, prestige, and image.

MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS

Marketing is a process of developing and implementing plans to identify and satisfy customer needs
and wants with the objective of customer satisfaction and profits making. The main elements of
marketing planning are - market research to identify and anticipate customer needs and wants; and
planning of appropriate marketing mix to meet market requirements/demands.

MARKETING PLANNING
"Marketing Planning is the process of developing marketing plan incorporating overall marketing
objectives, strategies, and programs of actions designed to achieve these objectives."

Marketing Planning involves setting objectives and targets, and communicating these targets to
people responsible to achieve them. It also involves careful examination of all strategic issues,
including the business environment, the market itself, the corporate mission statement, competitors,
and organizational capabilities.

MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS

Marketing planning process is a series of stages that are usually followed in a sequence. Organizations
can adapt their marketing plan to suit the circumstances and their requirements. Marketing planning
process involves both the development of objectives and specifications for how to achieve the
objectives. Following are the steps involved in a marketing plan.
1) Mission

Mission is the reason for which an organization exists. Mission statement is a straightforward
statement that shows why an organization is in business, provides basic guidelines for further
planning, and establishes broad parameters for the future. Many of the useful mission statements
motivates staff and customers.

2) Corporate Objectives

Objectives are the set of goals to be achieved within a specified period of time. Corporate objectives
are most important goals the organization as a whole wish to achieve within a specified period of
time, say one or five years.

All the departments of an organization including marketing department works in harmony to achieve
the corporate objectives of the organization. Marketing department must appreciate the corporate
objectives and ensure its actions and decisions support the overall objectives of the organization.

Mission statement and corporate objectives are determined by the top-level management (including
Board of Directors) of the organization. The rest of the steps of marketing planning process are
performed by marketing department. All the actions and decisions of the marketing department must
be directed to achieve organization mission and its corporate objectives.

3) Marketing Audit

Marketing audit helps in analyzing and evaluating the marketing strategies, activities, problems, goals,
and results. Marketing audit is done to check all the aspects of business directly related to marketing
department. It is done not only at the beginning of the marketing planning process but, also at a
series of points during the implementation of plan. The marketing audit clarifies opportunities and
threats, so that required alterations can be done to the plan if necessary.

A marketing audit identifies the biggest strengths and weaknesses of your current strategy. It
highlights what plans, processes, and practices are most effective at meeting goals. Just as
importantly, it builds a foundation for future decision-making by identifying opportunities, gaps, and
areas for improvement.

4) SWOT Analysis

The information gathered through the marketing audit process is used in development of SWOT
Analysis. It is a look at organization's marketing efforts, and its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats related to marketing functions.

Strengths and Weaknesses are factors inside the organization that can be controlled by the
organization. USP of a product can be the example of strength, whereas lack of innovation can be the
example of weakness.

Opportunities and Threats are factors outside the organization which are beyond the direct control of
an organization. Festive season can be an example of opportunity to make maximum sales, whereas
increasing FDI in a nation can be the example of threat to domestic players of that nation.

5) Marketing Assumptions

A good marketing plan is based on deep customer understanding and knowledge, but it is not
possible to know everything about the customer, so lot of different things are assumed about
customer.
For example:-
Target Buyer Assumptions - assumptions about who the target buyers are.

Messaging/Offering Assumptions - assumptions about what customers think are the most important
features of product to be offered.

6) Marketing Objectives and Strategies

After identification of opportunities and challenges, the next step is to develop marketing objectives
that indicate the end state to achieve. Marketing objective reflects what an organization can
accomplish through marketing in the coming years.

Objective identify the end point to achieve. Marketing strategies are formed to achieve the marketing
objectives. Marketing strategies are formed to determine how to achieve those end points. Strategies
are broad statements of activities to be performed to achieve those end points.

Without a strategy in place, the marketing objective remains an intangible fantasy. Likewise, strategy
without objective is like playing a game without having a picture of what it means to win. Both rely on
each other to produce an optimal, efficient marketing campaign. The entire marketing division must
work together for objectives and strategies to be effective as well. The management team must be
able to translate objectives into clear and actionable steps.

7) Forecast the Expected Results

Marketing managers have to forecast the expected results. They have to project the future numbers,
characteristics, and trends in the target market. Without proper forecasting, the marketing plan could
have unrealistic goals or fall short on what is promised to deliver.

- Forecasting Customer Response - Marketing managers have to forecast the response that the
average customers will have to marketing efforts. Without some idea how the marketing will be
received, managers can't accurately plan the promotions.

- Forecasting Marketing cost - To make the marketing plan stronger, accurate forecast of marketing
cost is required to be done.

- Forecasting the Market - To accurately forecast the market, marketing managers have to gain an
intimate understanding of customers, their buying behavior, and tendencies.

- Forecasting the Competition - Forecast of competition like - what they market, how they market,
what incentives they use in their marketing can help to counter what they are doing.

8) Create Alternative Plan

An alternate marketing plan is created and kept ready to be implement at the place of primary
marketing plan if the whole or some part of the primary marketing plan is dropped.

9) Marketing Budget

The marketing budget is the process of documenting the expected costs of the proposed marketing
plan. One common method to allocate marketing budgeting is based on a percentage of revenue.
Other methods are-comparative, all you can afford, and task method.

10) Implementation and Evaluation

At this stage the marketing team is ready to actually start putting their plans into action. This may
involve spending money on advertising, launching new products, interacting with potential new
customers, opening new retail outlets etc.
The marketing planning process is required to be evaluated and updated regular. Regular evaluation
of marketing efforts helps in achieving marketing goals.

IDENTIFYING AND ANALYZING COMPETITORS

In this competitive world there is no business that operates in isolation, there are many businesses
that are marketing products similar to or substitute of products you are marketing. These
organizations are your rivals and you have to compete with your rivals. Business competition is the
rivalry of two or more businesses that target the same customers, for example Coca-Cola and Pepsi,
or McDonald's and Burger King. Business organizations to be successful in long run have to identify
their competitors and analyze their strengths and weaknesses to defeat them.

Competitor is a person or an organization against whom other person or organization is competing. In

business, competitor is a business organization or a company operating in the same industry or a
similar industry which offers a similar product or service. For example - Wal-Mart and Target are big
players in Retail chain industry, they both are competitor of each other.

The presence of competitors in an industry means consumers have more alternatives to choose from,
it forces competitors to reduce prices of their products or services to grab the maximum share in the
market.

IDENTIFYING COMPETITORS

In the process of developing a successful marketing strategy, the first step is to identify the key
competitors in your market. Competitor identification is important to increase managerial awareness
of competitive threats and opportunities. Identification of key competitors is necessary to gain
competitive advantage by offering your customers a greater value than the competitors. Not only
current competitors are required to be identified, but future competitors are also to be anticipated.

Different varieties of competitors:

■Brand Competitors - Such type of competitors is those who market exactly similar products, at
similar price, and also to the same customers. For example, Pepsi and Coca-
Cola.
■Product Competitors - Such type of competitors is those who market similar products, but with
different features and benefits, and at different prices. For example, Pepsi and Coca cola.

■Generic Competitors - Such type of competitors is those who market different products, but
provide the same utility or benefit. For example, Audio cassettes and CDs, or Pepsi and Water
Total Budget Competitors - Such type of competitors is those who market different products, but
competing for the same financial resources of the customers. For example, Pepsi and Potato-chips.