1. Product Planning and
Development
Maxwell Ranasinghe
B.Sc. ( Business Administration) Hons. MAAT,
Attorney at Law, CPM ( New Haven- USA)

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Product Planning and
Development
Introduction to a product
Tangibility continuum of a product
Product Classification
Branding
Packaging
Product life Cycle
Introduction to new product planning

3. Definition of a product
• Product could be defined as
• Anyhting that can be offered to a
market for attention, acquisition, use
or consumption that might satisfy a
want or a need- Phillip Kotler.

4. Product could be of any
of the following
• A physical product – Table, Car, Pen
• Person- Bathiya and Santhus, Sanga, ranil,
Mahinda, Anarkali, Anjalina Jollie, Mervin S
• Place- Anuradhapura, Rathnapura, London,
Jerusalem
• Organisation- SLIM, CIM, UN, UNP, JVP,
UNI LEVER, DIALOG
• Idea- Freedom, democracy, Anti Corruption,
Social Justice, Anti Drugs, MADD, Family
Planning
• Services – education, lawyers service, bank
service

5. Product Scope- Three
Aspects
• 1. Physical Aspect- is the physical aspect
of the product. What it is ? E.g. It is a
herbal tooth paste
• 2. Functional Aspect – is what is does?
• E.g. It cleans tooth/ prevents tooth decay
• Symbolic Aspect- is what it means to the
users emotion?
• E.g. The satisfaction of a person “free
from tooth decay”

6. The Product Attributes
The Product
Tangible Atrributes
Design, Features,
performances, Branding
Packaging
Intangibel Attributes
Image, Value, Perception

7. • Product Sub category- Further
categorization of a product category
eg. Toilet Soap category may be sub
categorized as beauty soap and
herbal soap
• Product Brand- There could be one or
many brands in sub categories of the
product line such as Lux and Dove
• Product Mix Consistency- how closely
related the various product lines are
in terms of channel distribution,
promotion or in other
ways

8. Product width
Product
Lines
Product
category
Product sub
category
Product
Brands

9. Tangibility Continuum of
a products
• Tangibility continuum discuss about to a
what degree a product is tangible or
intangible.
• It is practically difficult to find a totally
tangible product or a totally intangible
product in the modern world of marketing
• In many products there are physical goods
as well as service components.

10. Tangibility Continuum
Pure
tangible
Pencil
Tangible
goods with
service
Car
Hybrid
- Equal
restaurant
Major
service
with
goods
Air
line
Pure
intangible
Lecture

11. Product Classification
Products
Consumer
Industrial
Materials and parts
Convenience
Staple
Raw Materials
Impulse
Manufactured Materials
Emergency
Capital Items
shopping
Installations
Speciality
accessories
Unsought
Supplies & services
Supplies
Business services

12. Side talk

13. Product Life Cycle
Theory ( PLC)
• It is assumed that a product will have a
life cycle from development to decline.
• It is measured in relation to time and
sales.
• However every product may not go through
the same life cycle or some products will
stay for along without getting on to the
declining stage.

14. Stage of Life cycle
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1. Development stage
2. Introductory stage
3. Growth stage
4. Maturity stage
5. Declining stage

15. PLC
• Dev
Intro
Growth
Maturity
Decline
Sales
S
a
l
e
s
Profit
losses
Time

16. Introductory
Growth
Maturity
Relatively Relatively Longer
short
short
period
Declining
Longer or
short
Sales are
usually slow
and profits ar
low
Competitors
will watch
Sales increase Sales growth Drop in the
and profits
become slow
sales
will be high
but volume big
Distribution
has just
begun
More
distributors
take up the
product
New
competitors
enter
More
competition
and over
capacity
Many
distributors
and
undercutting
Competitors
do not enter
due to low
margings
Distributors
reduce or give
up

17. Introduct Growth
ory
Maturity
decline
Positioning
and brand
awareness
Brand image is Many brands
established
fight each
other
Brand image is
low
Promotion
budget very
high
Promo budget
may be
increased
Not much
promotions
done
Only one or
two
manufacturers
High Product
failure rate
Few
Many
manufacturers manufactuers
Abundoning
manufacturing
Improve
product
quality and
features
May have to
take a
decision to
stay on or not
Promo budget
may be
standard or
low
Many changes
in the
Marketing mix
to be done

18. Importance of P L C to Marketers
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Important tool for forecasting and
strategic planning
It shows that product have a limited
life span
It graphically shows the trend in sales
and profitability
It shows the need to adopt different
strategies in various stages

19. PRODUCTS THAT COME
AND GO ( FAD)

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Limitation of the PLC
Many products may not have a life cycle as
depicted by PLC
Stages of PLC are difficult to distinguish
Identifying where one stage ends and the
other begins is very difficult
Traditional shape may not occur. Eg. Fad
items
Ignores the application of marketing mix
activities
Strategic decisions can change the PLC eg.
repositioning

21. Side talk

22. Services
• Service is is any act or performance that
one party can offer another that is
essentially intangible. It does not result in
ownership of anything- Kotler.
• Services have unique features that
differentaite from physical goods
• Intangibility
• Variability
• Inseparability
• Perishability
• Ownership
•
V I²PO

23. Planning for New
Products
• Long term survival of many firms in the
competitive world depends on launching
new products successfully.
• Planning for new products is an essential
and demanding strategic activity.
• There could be many types of new
products

24. Types of new
products
Innovative
Products
Replacement
products
Imitative
Products

25. • Innovative Products
– These products are new to the world and new to the
company.
– They are truly new to the customers and they provide
completely different alternatives to existing products
– Eg.
. Vaccine for AIDS
• Products based on Nano Technology
• Heat seeking missile
• Computers

26. • Replacement products
– Although these products are new to customers
or even to the company, they are essentially
improvements or redesigns of existing
products
– Digital phones replaced the analogues
– Disposable racers replaced the old blade base
racers
– Shaving foam and gels have replaced the
shaving soaps

27. • Imitative Products
– These products are new to the company and not
new to the market
– Many products come in this form to the market
– One or few companies may come out with an
innovative or replacemnet products but many will
copy the technology and come out with simillar
products. They are called mee- too products
– Eg. After celltel> mobitel> dialog> Hutch
–
After Signal > clogard> supirivicki> sudnatha
–
After Bata slipper > DSI> Ceypa> ranpa
–
After Mercedes Benze> Ford> GM> Toyota>
Nissan
–

28. Reasons for introducing
new products
• To suit the changes in customers
needs
• To adopt new technological advances
and avoid obsolence
• To match competition
• Product Life Cycle Concept
• To bring down the cost

29. Customer need analysis
• . Information is required as to the
expectation of the customer and to what
extent the existing products meet that
expectation. Then the gap between the two
could be observed
Expectation
•
GAP
Level met by the product

30. Side talk

31. If the gap is understood
well, one could find
opportunities to
• Introduce new products
• Make improvements in existing
products
• Make improvements in production
process
• Make improvements in supporting
services.

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Stages of new product
development
Idea Generation
Idea Screening
Concept Development & testing
Marketing Strategy
Business Analysis
Product Development
Test Marketing
Commercialisation ( Launch)

33. Idea Generation
• Finding promising new ideas is the starting
point in the new-product development
process.
• Idea generation ranges from incremental
improvements to existing products to new
to the world products.
• ( produce a drug to reduce cholesterol
with less side effects = improvement
• produce a drug that cures AIDS = new to
the world product)

34. Sources of new ideas
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Internal
Customers
Competitors
Outside inventors
Channel members
Consultants

35. Side talk

36. Methods of generating new
ideas
• Search
• Searching new product idea publications, research
publications, the internet, exhibitions,
conventions
• Marketing Research
• Meet product end users and find out what kind of
products that can be used to satisfy their needs.
Meet focus groups of consumers- retailers to
discuss new products.
• Technical research
• Firm’s internal research laboratories and other
external laboratories could generate new idea for
you.

37. Screening Evaluating and
business analysis.
• Screening
• There should be a very clear cut screening
policy that would reject the unpromising
product ideas and further the promising
ideas.
• Two basic questions need to be answered
at the screening stage.
• Is the idea could be practically developed
into a product with development,
production,marketing and financial
capabilities of the company?
• Is the venture commercially feasible?
( market attractiveness,profitability,
social and environmental concerns)

38. • Evaluation
• After the initial screening more comprehensive
evaluation is required. It is better to have a
buyers reaction also into the evaluation process.
• A response from a sample of buyers potential
buyers could be a very good criteria to find out
the ultimate demand for the product.( This is also
called proposed product concept testing)
However, the actual product is not in existence
and it could not be able to get results as in a test
marketing process.

39. Concept development & testing
• Idea has to be developed into a concept
• A concept is a detailed version of the idea
stated in a meaningful consumer terms.
• The developed concept will be tested among a
sample of consumers.
• This will be presented to the target market in
words or pictures.
• Few questions will be asked to check whether
the target market will buy the product.

40. Concept Cars year 2008

41. Marketing Strategy
Development
Product
• Brand name selection and registration
• Government regulations as to pricing,
packaging and labeling etc
• Determine packaging, sizes, shapes,
colours, other properties
• Guarantee period

42. Pricing
• Finalise pricing strategy- Premium/
skimming, penetrative, mark up etc
• Dealer/distributor margings
• Bulk selling discounts
• Credit periods

43. Distribution
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Select channels of distribution
Transportation
Point of Sales Materials ( POSM)
Display racks, stand etc.

44. Promotion
• Selection and briefing an advertising
agency
• Finalise segmentation and target
markets
• Finalise the positioning strategy
• Have a theme
• Communication budgets
Finalise advertising plan/promotion
•
plan

45. Business Analysis
• Business analysis estimates the commercial
performance of the proposed product.
• Revenue forecast
• Cost Estimation
• Profit Projections• Acceptable level of profit for a given
product development• Assess the amount of risk involve

46. Product Development and
testing
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Prototype
User Tests
Manufacturing development
Component developments and
collaborative product developments
various specialised manufacturers
get involved.

47. Test Market the
product
• During the test marketing, the marketers offer
the product for sale in a limited area where they
can measure the response.
• Ideally the test market should reflect the target
market for the product. The marketers evaluate
not only the customers reaction but all the
elements of the marketing mix.
• Based on the results of test marketing,
marketers determines how the marketing mix
should be adjusted before a full scale launch.

48. Malli Ehenum Cup Eka
Issuwa Ah!

49. Ah Mokada putha wenda
Yanne?

50. Katada Adambara…

51. • Depending on the nature of the product
and the sample size, cost and time of test
marketing may vary. E.g. test marketing a
car could be more expensive than test
marketing a new cell phone.
• If test marketing welcomes competition
and gives ideas for competitors and the
product could be copied easily one can
avoid the test marketing.

52. Launch product
• First let the company wide employees
know about the product and its
features and marketing objectives of
the firm
• Determine method of launch
• Selection of venue for launch
• Selection of media for launch
• Brief distributors about the product
• Press conference
• Distribute promotional material
• Execution of advertising strategy
•

53. STAGES IN ADOPTION PROCESS
• AWARENESS – the consumer become aware
of the innovation but lack information about
the product
• INTEREST – the consumer is induced to seek
information about the innovation
• EVALUATION – the consumer consider
whether to try the innovation
• TRIAL– the consumer tries the innovation to
improve his or her estimate of its value
• ADOPTION – the consumer decide to make
full and regular use of the innovation

54. Diffusion of innovation
• Innovators 2.5% -- willing to try new idea at a
risk
• Early adopters 13.5%-- opinion leaders , adopt
new ideas early but carefully
• Early majority 34% -- deliberate they adopt
new ideas before the average person
• Late majority 34% they adopt only after a
majority of people have tried it.
• Laggards 16% -- suspicious of changes and

55. Questions and Answers
and Exam Technique
Vibagayak Nethiwa Pass karanne
nedda ?
Vibage fail vunath marketing karanna
puluwni !!!!!!

56. Wedeh lehesi nehe!
Meka godak
denek
anaganna
wedak……
Ha.. Ha ….
Parissamin…..