Product Differentiation - Essay Example

Technological evolution, organizational environment and demand characteristics are the major forces creating opportunity for Miss Woolpert. Stereographs were the dominant technological product design between 1850 and 1930. However, large businesses enhanced economies of scale and heightened the barriers to entry. Increased competition led to the closure of opportunities in the market and many firms stopped producing as more technological advancements generated new, more attractive products. Nevertheless, there is still close to 40% that is interested in the old technology that the initially dominant businesses no longer offer. This has created an opportunity to re-introduce the antique technology in to the market. The organizational environment also presents a significant opportunity, as there are no direct competitors to the business. On the other hand, the venture is not new as it was in the market earlier and over 80% of potential customers know about it (Sally, 118). The Museum industry is competitive due to the existence of numerous kinds of advertisements, which increase awareness to the clients’ base. This leads to the increased sales and consequent increased revenues. These advertisements services include the Stereoscopes Sevant Packages. In addition, they help in increasing credibility (Eaton, and Lipsey, 7). The demand characteristics indicate a prevailing opportunity, based on the feedback from potential customers in various exhibitions. According to Sally (118), numerous people including the collectors and the museum archives perceive the Twin scope as a modern product. In order to be successful, Miss Woolpert has to have a lot of factors fall her way. The challenge of matting and stereographs in TwinScope is solved by offering matt and frame kits, which help in completing the process of public display. In addition, the company sells original stereographs (Noel, and Glazer, 35). This new and interesting technology will open up a world of opportunity for Miss Woolpert and aid in expanding her business. Information will reach potential customers through testimonials of those who see the display in the public museum and will later be able to come full circle and grow TwinScope. TwinScope has quite a few targets that it hopes to attain. First, there are couples of thousands of members from various clubs. These may be the collectors of such products. Along those same lines, TwinScope hopes to target at least big institutions 37 such as museums, which will aid in increasing awareness of the stereographs. While these organizations occupy an estimate of close to 55% of the market share, Twin Scope will most likely be focusing on the niche market of stereograph club members (Sally, 118). Large-scale production of the stereograph needs various costs such as the fixed costs and variable costs. With the intended TwinScope plan of economy of scale the organization will need to have an estimated expenditure cost of $56,000 for raw materials and equipment. The large-scale production will reduce the cost of one unit by at least 10% (Donald, 39). The high degree of brand loyalty for stereoscope firms will require TwinScope to spend money on advertising the new ideology of a ‘hanging art piece’ to develop its own brand loyalty. Breaking through the barrier into museums also proves to be a very difficult task. Jeffrey Kraus an antique photo curator is a strong and major competitor for TwinScope. TwinScope uses online marketing and distribution channels to reach its client base. Almost 63% of its clients is served though the online platform and this has helped the organization to expand its market niche by 50 %. This is because of the majority of the individuals embracing the internet use. While there are a few competitors at hand for TwinScope, the market for stereographs has not been fully exploited due to lack of adequate information on clients’’ preference and market dynamics. This implies that, the TwinScope will have to invest more funds in consumer behavior and market dynamics of the stereographs. There is high growth potential for TwinScope that will be accomplished through constant innovations of the product (Keith, Aspinwall and Wilson, 29). With the spread use of technological application such as the e-commerce, which provides a platform where a consumer makes a buying decision depending on the preferred choice and taste, the global market form the most viable platform for the stereographs In the future, TwinScope will present its own exhibitions and represent photographers who make stereographs. This year will see the firm coming up with two sets of exhibitions, one with images of Miss Woolpert and her twin sister while the other with a series Miss Woolpert explains as “a night at the bar”. This all will also becoming as Miss Woolpert continues to standardize and finalize her product and packaging design as well as price points (Ray, 34). The opportunity for profit is grounded in the target market comprising of stereo photography enthusiasts. Millions of clients from clubs, museums and institutions across the globe are willing to purchase the 3-D related products, because they signify the modern technological preferences. As well, these potential customers have an inclination towards bringing back the old and relishing in the antiquity of the product (Gordon and Hoberg, 47). There is a window of opportunity in the collectors and stereo photographers who need a way to look at stereographs in a whole new way. By utilizing the TwinScope product and expertise, they will be diverging from the old, unreliable, plastic versions of old and utilizing something that is unique in its own right. Customers will be enthralled by the artistic appeal of the product and be able to relate more closely with a product that is a part of their own environment (Morris, 51). TwinScope has the opportunity at this time, to close in on this window and revitalize what was once an important relic, stereographs. Because of all this, customers of TwinScope will be more likely than not willing to switch over from the products of old. The quality of a product in this industry is influenced by the superior material and technology applied in producing the final product. The superior product differentiation will position TwinScope in the market platform (Eaton, and Lipsey, 7). In the end, TwinScope and Miss Woolpert currently have a very large opportunity. The different trends that include quality improvement, technological advancement, and making the old, new are working in Miss Woolpert’s favor. TwinScope has the opportunity to raise awareness for stereographs, increase the aid towards visual impairments, and become a viable business in itself (Bob and Velez, 23). Miss Woolpert is the driven, hard-working, and reliable person that is capable of leading TwinScope to establish them in such an untapped market. Work Cited Eaton, B C, and Richard G. Lipsey. "Product Differentiation." Handbook of Industrial Organization, 1 / Edited by Richard Schmalensee and Robert D. Willig. (n.d.). Print. Phillips, Gordon M, and Gerard Hoberg. Dynamic Text-Based Industry Classifications and Endogenous Product Differentiation. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2010. Internet resource. Davis, Keith F, Jane L. Aspinwall, and Marc F. Wilson. The Origins of American Photography: From Daguerreotype to Dry-Plate, 1839-1885. Kansas City (Mo.: Hall Family Foundation, 2007. Print. Zone, Ray. 3-d Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2012. Print. Holbrook, Morris B. "Marketing Applications of Three-Dimensional Stereography." Marketing Letters. 9.1 (1998): 51. Print Figuring Companion Species Consumption: a Multi-Site Ethnography of the Post-Canine Afghan Hound. , n.d.. Internet resource. Holbrook, Morris B. "Marketing Applications of Three-Dimensional Stereography." Marketing Letters : a Journal of Research in Marketing. 9.1 (1998): 51-64. Print. Mckechnie, Sally. "Integrating Intelligent Systems into Marketing to Support Market Segmentation Decisions." Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance & Management. 14.3 (2006): 117-127. Print. Capon, Noel, and Rashi Glazer. Marketing and Technology: A Strategic Co-Alignment. Cambridge, Mass: Marketing Science Institute, 1986. Print. Barron, Donald. Marketing and Technology. Heriot-Watt University for the Watt Club, 1987. Print. Lord, Bob, and Ray Velez. Converge: Transforming Business at the Intersection of Marketing and Technology. , 2013. Internet resource. Read More