Week 1 Lesson B

Product is anything that fills customer needs or wants
Product can be tangible or service or even an idea
to be sucessful the product must have a destinctive selling proposition
we call it Product >> positioning
can be based on functional or symbolic based on what consumers preceive
coca cola is symbolic

key concepts on product on the marketing mix
1- product quality
2- managing product line
3- product service support

A- Product development and Brand management

Product development >>> innovation
radical innovation >> apple >> google
other companies incremental innovation for example coke cola

development of a product
a- marketing people
b- sales
c- operations >> placement
d- R& D
no outside influence at this stage and lots secrecy
this is called stage-gate method

discovery of product >> Idea>> Business case and plan >>>development >>> test and validation >>launch
input from selected customers only.
but many products fail

on the new age products are moving from companies created them to customer co-created example the T-shirts company

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Strong brands have which of the following benefits?

Charge higher prices

Enjoy greater loyalty

Experience higher profitability

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case study

Threadless.com
2000 big success
2014 closed all the retail shops and fired 25% workforce

what happened?
competition
older generation
younger people make their own designs

evaluation
1- success or failure?
2- in digital world Threadless co-creation is positive or negative
3- what could Threadless do? strategy?tactics and tools to enhance their success

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Sharing Economy >> they digital they run on a website or app>> they grant temporary access >> resources are from other users
company must recruit customers and providers
uber now is moving to have its own cars

1- uber
2- renttherunway.com
3- lendingclub.com (peer to peer lending money)
4- airbnb

Which of the following are characteristics of sharing economy firms?

 Two-sided platform

Crowdsourced supply

Access not ownership

The individuals who provide crowdsourced resources are often called “Prosumers”