How New Product Could Be Introduced into the Market Today - Essay Example

Motivescosmetic New product development has been categorized as a sequential procedure which entails keen follow up of six steps. However, some models have shown a variation by including sub-phases and use of unique terminologies to elaborate the steps. However, the most accepted sequential phases are exploration, screening, business analysis, development, testing and commercialization. This brings in the product life cycle concept, in which, a business can weigh its success or failures. In the discussion, the lipstick is the major basis. Briefly, it dates back to 3500 BCE, a time when the Queen of Mesopotamia; Queen Shub-ad would make a colorful mixture from white lead and red soft rock to beautify her lips. Motives is a cosmetic company that controls a huge proportion of lipstick and mascara production in the American market. In this case, the product life cycle of the La La Mineral lipstick will be used as an illustration. The product life cycle of La La mineral lipstick is discussed below. Introducing a new product has to adhere to the steps discussed below Create a mission statement Motivescosmetic has to highlight its key objectives and targets in the cosmetic industry. The new product has to be in line with the already established corporate strategies. This will require the company to come up with a precise and an all round mission statement. Since there is so much uncertainty in the market, this step will act like a guide to plunge into the market and face the future courageously. Analyze the target market It is good to find out the potential customers. In this case, the lipstick that makes mouth fuller is will soot the female customers and those in the beauty industry. The company has to identify the expected perceptions in terms of value, quality and efficiency so that they can respond to inquiries. This kind of understanding prepares Motivescosmetic to position the lipstick product in the already congested market. In another perspective, the company has to make an analysis about its target market by grouping them into industries and geographical location among others. Understand competitors Having a great product does not guarantee success. Motivescosmetic has to conduct a keen analysis about the potential competitors and how they operate. This will include understanding how they carry out their positioning, handle their distribution channels and come up with pricing strategies. In addition, the company has to take a keen look at how customers respond to the competitors’ style of marketing. Position the product Positioning entails the ability to understand the uniqueness in the product and how it will stand out from the already existing products. It requires going beyond the normal anticipations and critically analyzing the perceptions likely to be incited by customers. This will be helpful in identifying mistakes and reducing the risk of misinterpretation once the product hits the market. Create an action plan This will require combination of all the above discussed steps and turning them into executable action plans. To prevent the likelihood of falling off the path, the plan has to be effective in a style that distributes time well at each step. Concentrating much effort at one step can affect smooth transition into the market. Should everything run smoothly, the plan can be executed. Product life cycle Introduction stage This is the immediate stage when a product is introduced to a particular target market group. Since this kind of lipstick is yet to be introduced in the market, its entry will be characterized by slow growth in sales and little or no profit. This is because the stage requires huge investments in creating product awareness to the consumers. Such awareness demands heavy advertisement campaigns, offering promotions and encouraging product stimulation (Perreault et al 238). At this stage, advertising and promotion campaigns play a key role in stimulating the primary demand. This creates a desire among ladies because there are very few competitors. Should there be an increase competition, the company will be forced to shift its focus from primary demand to selective demand. This brings in the marketing mix variables like controlling product distribution, which can be a challenge since brokers, intermediaries can turn down the offer of distributing the new product to the intended end users. Among the reasons can be pricing, which can either be very low or high. However, as a corporate strategy, high prices attached to new products help in skimming thus easy for the company to recover production costs and enjoy huge returns from buyers who are insensitive to prices. On the contrary, a company can rely on low prices to reduce competition and effectively penetrate into the market with ease. Since there are so many alternatives for promoting and advertising the brand, Motives capitalizes on the presence of current technology by posting the products online, social websites, visiting areas dominated by ladies like learning institutions, clubs and social functions. Through such intensive awareness, the company can successfully launch its product in the already market with the hope of controlling and leading the marketing due to the uniqueness in its product. Growth stage At this stage, the common characteristic will be a skyrocketing increase in the number of sales volume. In addition, competitors will emerge during to enjoy a free ride since the market and product awareness has already established. The mentioned characteristics however will accelerate the profits to the peak. At such times, the marketing department, while concentrating on advertisements, it shifts its attention towards the stimulating selective demand. Motivescosmetic will base its returns in terms of profit in comparison to what key competitors offer so that it can enjoy the highest market share while leading comfortably. Sales will increase at an increasing rate because many people are willing to buy and try out the product (Perreault et al 239) In addition, people who would have earlier on tried the product and felt satisfied will always buy it again; repeat purchasers. The company will have to control product distribution in order to reduce or eliminate emerging competitors. Maturity stage This stage is characterized by an increase in sales at a decreasing rate. This is because there are new buyers running after the product and those buying are the repeat purchasers. In addition, marginal competitors leave the market at this stage because they cannot withstand the major competitors. a reduction in profits will be evident due to massive competition thus making it expensive to maintain customers. To control and get returns from the market share, a company opts to venture into new territories in search for new customers and improves its product differentiation to maintain uniqueness. Decline stage A decrease in sales is the onset of this stage. In most cases, companies find themselves at this stage not because they made a wrong move, but because customer preferences change, the environment changes and adapting to such changes require a lot of time. Therefore, a company is left with two alternatives; a) Product deletion Just like death, it is the most devastating strategy because it means the product dies a natural death and will never have an appearance in the market (Perreault et al 245)Such a decision requires keen analysis and the effect it will cause to the loyal customers. b) Harvesting In this strategy, a company retains the product but opts to reduce the marketing expenses. The main purpose of such a strategy is to retain the loyal customers while making sure no dollar is spent in promoting of advertising the product. Conclusion For companies to successfully launch new products in the market, they have to follow the discussed steps keenly and incorporate them into the expected product life-cycle. Motivescosmetic will have to adhere to the discussed steps if it has to be successful in selling off its lipstick that makes lips fuller. Works cited MotivesCosmetics. Motives for La La Mineral Lipstick. 2 May 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. Perreault, William, D., Cannon, Joseph, & McCarthy, E., J. Essentials of Marketing. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. Print. Read More