INTERNET EXERCISES
Chapter 11: Product Strategy
Exercise 1 – Successful New Products Are Designed
to Meet Customer Needs
Exercise 2 – Small Business, Product Superiority, and
the Product Life Cycle
Exercise 1 – Successful New Products Are Designed
to Meet Customer Needs
Vignette: One of Creative Labs’ most successful
products is the Nomad Jukebox 3. This digital entertainment device was
designed for use wherever an active person goes, whether he or she is
on a run, doing an intense workout, or taking a scenic drive.
Featured URL: www.americas.creative.com
The Key is Having the Right Combination of Product Features
Sandra Wear is the chief executive of a Vancouver-based strategic consulting
company, Tykra Inc. She travels extensively and takes her Nomad Jukebox
with her wherever she goes. The Nomad looks like a Walkman but plays MP3
music files and can hold more than 100 hours’ worth of CD-quality
music. The portability of the unit is what appeals to Ms. Wear. And, despite
the fact that it is two years old and needs to be upgraded, she says the
features of her Nomad, such as allowing users to create MP3 playlists,
make it invaluable. “I love the colour, size, and versatility of
creating play lists,” she says. “This thing was way ahead
of its time.”
Activity
-
Tour the featured Web site for Creative Labs. Note their full line-up
of digital entertainment products.
-
Assess the firm’s current product mix. How many product lines
does it currently offer? How deep are the offerings within each of
the product lines? Using Table 11.1 in the text as a guide, analyze
their product mix in terms of width and depth of assortment.
-
Based on your analysis of Creative Labs’ product mix, do you
think that the company has any product offerings that are capable
of cannibalizing each other?
-
Does Creative Labs currently have line extensions? Is line extension
a feasible or advisable strategy to employ in the digital entertainment
industry?
Resources Information on the digital entertainment
industry:
Advance, University of Connecticut’s weekly newspaper
– an article entitled “Digital
Revolution Transforming Entertainment Industry, Says Filmmaker”;
an interview with Samuel Goldwyn Jr. about how digitization will impact
the movie industry in the future
IBM – the Web site for IBM’s
digital media and entertainment products; includes several case studies
and “solutions” it has provided to companies in a wide variety
of industries
Information/assistance with product development:
Government of Canada – lists resource guides and primers for individual
inventors and small startup companies
Product Development and Management Association –
the PDMA is a nonprofit association whose members are corporate product
development professionals, academics, and service providers, and whose
mission is to improve the effectiveness of people engaged in developing
and managing new products, both new manufactured goods and new services
NASA – this is the portion of NASA’s Web
site devoted to encouraging the growth of business into space and/or using
technology developed for the U.S.’s space program.
Exercise #2 – Small Business, Product Superiority,
and the Product Life Cycle
Featured URL: www.sbinfocanada.about.com/library/weekly/aa053101a.htm
Going for Longevity
Everyone who starts a business hopes that his or her venture will be successful
and long lasting. In other words, everyone who starts a business is hoping
his or her product or service will have an extended product life cycle.
Whyte’s Framing and Gallery, located in the Comox Valley area, started
in the late 1970’s and, despite heavy competition, has experienced
steady growth. The company’s business was built on its unique picture
frames. It is now looking at diversifying its product line by expanding
the Gallery side of its operation and becoming a distributor for Awareness
Health Corporation.
.
Activity
-
Read the article at the featured URL: “Whyte’s Framing:
Lessons in Longevity”.
The text provides a list of the characteristics of superior products.
Which of these characteristics do Whyte’s basic product, its
picture frames, have?
-
The owners of Whyte’s Framing and Gallery are diversifying
their “product line” in two ways in order to extend the
life cycle of their business. Relate their diversification plans to
the product life cycle concept.
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