Boundary Objects in New Product Development - Case Study Example

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH PLAN-ADT SECURITY CORPORATION Name Institution Date ADT Security Corporation New Addition to the already Existing Line of Products 1. Company Description ADT security Corporation is one of the biggest security companies in the world. This company was founded in 1974 and has been providing its services in over 35 countries around the world, with its headquarters at Boca Raton, FL in the United States of America. This company was founded as the gold and stock company in 1876 that sent telegraphs around the United States of America. The president of this company one day woke up to an attack by a burglar and this inspired him to start home security systems. In 1874 the company changed its name to American District Telegraph (ADT) and later in 1876 in stopped the telegraphing business and specialized only in the provision of security systems (ADT, 2014, n.p). The current Chief Executive Officer of ADT security Corporation is Mr. Narek K. Gurshahaney. This security company is known all over the United States of America and Canada for providing security products such as Home Security Systems, Custom Home Security Systems, Home Health Systems, Home Video Surveillance, Home Remote Controls, Interactive Management & Computerization Systems, Business Intrusion Detectors, Video Surveillance for Businesses, Business Electronic Entrance Control, Business Remote Management & Automation Products (ADT, 2014, n.p). This Corporation serves over seven million customers in different countries and holds a quarter of the residential market and 15% of the corporate market in providing security systems. The company grew further in 2010 when it acquired the operations of Broadview Security Company. Tyco International the company that owns ADT security corporation announced in 2010 that two of the biggest security companies in the United States of America would be coming together to form one big company. All the customers and revenue owned by Broadview Security Company would now be assumed by the ADT Security Corporation (ADT, 2014, n.p). The ADT security Corporation works under an authorized dealer systems where different dealers of security products are authorized by the company to install security systems for different ADT customers and later the installations will be monitored by ADT agents. However, the dealers are only allowed to use products that are similar to the products of ADT Security Corporation. The ADT Security Corporation now being a bigger company has been thinking about adding new products to their already existing lines (ADT, 2014, n.p). The following is a representation of the new service that this company will be providing, the uses of the product and the marketing strategies that will be used to make certain the consumers purchase the products. 2. New Service Concept Overview The new product to be introduced to the market by ADT is the provision of security officers to both the residential and the corporate markets. In addition to the security systems provided by this company, there will be security officers hired to monitor the residential areas and the companies that are customers of the ADT Security Corporation. The security officers will be highly trained men and women who have the proper skills to detect any abnormal things in their area of work. The company will start a training program where all the eligible security officers will be selected to work for the customers on behalf of the company. All the security officers hired by the company will be young and energetic people who will be capable of working throughout the day. The services will be available for 24 hours every day. The responsibility of the security officers in the residential homes will be to monitor the houses and make sure there are no burglars or intruders in the area. In case of any cases of intrusion, the security officers will be expected to call for help from police officers as soon as they can. The security officers in the corporate locations will have the responsibility of monitoring who gets in and out of the corporate offices. They will be asking for identification from all the people who get into a certain premises and issuing visitor passes to all the visitors to the premises. 3. Rationale of the new service development In spite of the installation of the security systems in both the residential and the corporate areas, there are still some cases of insecurity such as break-ins that have been reported in the past few years. the board of directors of the ADT Security Corporation came together to try and find out some of the ways in which they can strengthen security in both areas and reduce the cases of insecurity. In their meetings, they discovered that most people in residential areas feel much safer when they can see an actual person monitoring their homes as opposed to all the machines and cameras. In a survey conducted by this company, it was discovered that most people like to see security officers around their homes because they make them feel safer. Most of them said that in case of an attack, they like to have someone near them that they can ask for help before the 911 officers get to their home. It was also discovered that most residential customers felt that the security cameras and alarms only help to identify the intruders after they have attacked the homes but they do not prevent them from coming. However, the security officers were predicted to work better in preventing the intruders from getting into the homes. Due to these findings, the board thought that it was necessary to come up with the security officers’ services to make the customers feel safer and also reduce cases of insecurity. The company also conducted a survey in different corporate offices and discovered that they also needed the services of security officers in addition to the security systems that the company was already providing. In most companies, it was discovered that they are some things that need to be done by security officers such as the issuance of the visitor passes. There are also some small business corporations that were not yet big enough to afford the Electronic Entrance Control machines but they could afford to hire security officers to manually search all the people who get into the premises and prevent any cases of insecurity. 4. The New Product Development Process i. Idea generation The main motivation behind this idea was the high cases of insecurity that have been reported in different areas around the United States of America and Canada, the countries that use the services of ADT Security Corporation. The company reasoned that with the high cases of insecurity customers in both target markets will feel safer if they can have actual people to watch their homes when they are or are not at home and monitor who gets in and out of their offices. ii. Screening The main costs that will the company will incur in the provision of this new service will be the training of the security officers. The company will use its own resources to enroll all the security officers to be hired in a training program that will enable them to get all the required skills that will enable them to work competently. However, this money will be expected to be received back by the company through the fees that the potential customers will be paying to receive the new service. iii. Business analysis This service will not require a lot of operation costs as the only money required in the operations is the salaries of the security officers and the purchase of their uniforms. The initial operation costs will be around two million US Dollars with monthly operation costs of one million US Dollars. However the company is expecting over ten Million dollars from all the consumers who are likely to use these products. iv. Product and marketing mix development The company conducted a product and market mix development by studying the consumer behavior and in turn coming up with the best marketing and promotion strategies that will suit the behavior of the targeted consumers. v. Market testing To test whether the product is likely to be bought, the company conducted a survey with a sample of the prospective consumers to determine whether they would like the company to provide security officers’ services. The company registered a very impressive 75% of consumers who stated that they were likely to invest in the proposed project. 15% of Consumers who participated in the survey were not sure if they would invest in the service but would decide after it has been launched. 5. Target Market & Value Proposition This product targets two different types of markets, namely the residential and the corporate markets. The Residential Market This market comprises of the individuals who own or have rented residential homes in the urban areas. Therefore, the market comprises of both the rental property and individually owned property. The reason why the services will on the properties located in the urban regions is because urban areas have the highest levels of insecurity in the country. The services will be focused in this demographic area since it has a very wide consumer base because nearly all the people living in the urban areas have a home whether owned or rented. With the reported high level of insecurity in urban areas people will want to feel safe and they can only attain this if the level of security in their home areas is made better. ADT Security Corporation plans to do this by hiring security officers to guard these homes. The company will market these new services through relevant media to make certain that all potential consumers in the United States of America and Canada can learn of their new products. Corporate Customers Aside from the residential market, this product will also be made available for the corporate customers of ADT Security Company. The corporate market is mainly made up of the commercial companies. The services will target all types of commercial companies including the big and the small firms. Under this type of market, the company will also target commercial firms that are located in the urban areas because they have the highest number of cases of insecurity in the United States of America and Canada. The potential customers of this service will be supplied with security officers who will help to uphold high security both in the inside and areas surrounding the office premises. Before coming up with this product, the company was able to identify some of the security needs that the targeted markets have and the ways in which they will be able to benefit from the new services of ADT Security Corporation. The following are some of the needs that the residential land the corporate markets have. Residential Customers The main security issues that are faced by the residential customers are related to house burglary. Therefore, the company will have to convince these consumers that they can provide them with the qualified security officers who will help to reduce the cases of theft and break-in in their homes. The company will launch a consumer campaign that will help to show the residential customers why it is important for them to get this new security service provided by ADT Security Corporation. Corporate Customers The needs of the corporate customers have been determined to be much more than the residential areas. The corporate market deals with very many new people on a daily basis therefore it is very essential for them to enhance the security in their premises even more than the residential areas. Most of the corporate companies are likely to invest in the security officers who maintain order in the work places and monitor the people who get in and out of the work premises. In summary, here is a segmented table showing clearly the positioning strategies that the company will use when introducing this product to the market. Product Market Identified Need Marketing Strategy Security Officers Commercial Market Commercial premises have a very high number of people coming in and getting out which makes these areas need officers who can monitor the areas and do jobs that the security machines cannot do. The marketing strategies to be used include social media, newspaper advertisements, television and radio advertisements, use of flyers and brochures and also use of email propositions. Security Officers Residential Market Increased cases of insecurity in residential areas have made people to feel unsafe when they leave their homes. Security officers will help them feel safe because they will monitor their homes even when they are not available. The marketing strategies to be used include social media and television and radio advertisements In the current security market, there are different security companies that have tried venturing into the market. Most of them offer the security devices but have not yet tried providing the security officers’ services. For this reason, the consumers are likely to invest in these services because they are different from what is provided by most security companies. The security officers provided by the company will be professionally trained using the resources of the company which will make their services better than other companies already in the market. 6. Commercialization Product Launch The company plans to launch this new service in September, 2015. The product will be launched in a ceremony at the corporate’s headquarters in Boca Raton, FL. During the launch of these new services, the company Chief Executive Officer Mr. Narek Gurshahaney will explain the importance of this new product and the targeted market. The pricing, the marketing strategies and the distribution strategies will also be announced during the launch of the new service. Pricing The pricing of this product will vary depending on the type of consumer. The residential consumers will be expected to pay a relatively lower charge compared to the corporate consumers because of the difference in the complexity of the services and also the higher revenue of the corporate customers compared to the residential customers. Additionally, the prices for all the residential units and all the corporate units will vary depending on the location of the homes or the offices. For instance, the people living in areas with higher rates of insecurity will pay more than the people living in the safe areas. Consequently, the office premises located in the safer areas will pay more than those that are located in the risky areas. Distribution strategy Once a company calls in and registers for the security services, the officers will be sent to the premises as soon as the contract has been signed and payment has been made. The customers will only be required to provide their home of office addresses so that they can be easily accessed by the officers. The company will build different security offices in different areas so that the officers can easily access their areas of posting. Communication strategy This product will be presented in online, television, radio and print media. In the online media methods, the company will use different social media sites to let the public know about their new services. Some of the targeted social media sites ate Facebook and twitter where a very large population is expected to see. From these sites, company expects over 25% of the new customers to learn about the new product provided by the company. The company will also use pop-up advertisements that will help the public to learn about the new services provided by ADT Security Corporation. The company will also put up information on the new product, including details of how the product works and the pricing, in the company website where any interested consumer can access and get more information. The company will also use print media to get information about this service to more potential customers. The information about the product will be printed in various newspapers in the countries which the company operates to get the information to many as people in the countries as possible. Other print media to be used include brochures and flyers which will be dropped at various companies and homes which are likely to require security Officers. The Company will also try to identify the entire prospective customer and send personal emails letting them know about the new service and how they can access it. The different types of media used are projected to reach all customers on national levels because the new services will be made available to every customer within the countries that the company operates. 7. Managing Product Services The consumer market for this product has a very high potential for growth because the rates of insecurity have been increasing in the past years. The introduction of this new product has been influenced by various emotion theories and areas of motivation. There have been a lot of cases of insecurity reported in the United States of America and Canada in the past few months. Some of the most common insecurity cases reported includes home burglary when the home owners are not at home. Theft cases have also become very popular in a number of office premises therefore the need for enhanced security. The ADT security company will take advantage of the reported cases to encourage more customers to try hiring security officers both at home and in the offices premises so that they may get some peace at all times. The Slogan, ‘ADT, a security and peace of mind provider’ is used because many consumers will be motivated by the fact that they will get some peace of mind by hiring the security officers (ADT, 2014, n.p). With ADT home security officers, the residential consumers can enjoy time even away from home knowing that their homes are being watched by professional security officers. During the launch of this product the company will announce subsidized prices for all the first customers to invest in the new services offered by ADT. By doing this, the company hopes to make the launch effective and to encourage customers to rush to get the services so that they can enjoy the subsidized prices. Before the launch, the company will have already trained a number of officers so that there are a good number of people available to provide the services for the first customers. Some of the trained security officers will be presented to the potential consumers during the launch of this new service so that the potential consumers can be motivated to get their services. 8. Conclusion The sale of this new product is likely to be successful if all the planned strategies are effectively implemented. The type of media to be used to market these services are modern and take into deliberation the developments in technology. For example the campaign makes use of social media and the television advertisements that are currently very popular in marketing new products. Social media sites are one of the most utilized internet sites at any certain time hence the information for this service is likely to reach a lot of individuals at the same moment. Another benefit of the kind of media used to market the product is that it gets to both target consumers at the same moment hence reducing the cost of marketing significantly. Most of the campaign strategies utilized are relatively cheap hence the company will save a lot of resources and avoid allocating too many resources on a new product that can be risky. This product will enable the company to earn recurring revenue because the customers will be expected to pay a monthly fee to have the security in their areas of work enforced. This is a very important factor about this product because it will enable the company to maintain a constant flow of income even when the number of customers who need their previous products has reduced. However, there are some considerations that the company still needs to make before they launch this new product. For instance, the marketing of the product should take into consideration the available competition in the market (Hoteling 1990, p. 56). There are a significant number of security companies in the United States of America and Canada, which are the leading target market, that already provide the security officer’s services and therefore the company must device methods in which they will get more customers than the other companies. From the marketing strategies and the kind of need in the market, ADT Security Company should go ahead and provide this new service in the market. Since this is already a big company with a high customer base, they can easily manage to persuade the customers to incorporate this new service to their already existing set of security devices. 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