. Target Market – In relation to how big the target market is, the structure of the market and the buying behaviours of the target market. The positioning of the product within potential consumers is also critical for a successful marketing strategy.
. Product – In terms of pricing, how the product will be distributed, how it will be promoted and the product’s positioning within its potential customers.
. Goals – The long term profit and sales goals in comparison with organisation’s projections over time. An organisation should also consider elements of the marketing mix when thinking of their long term goals and objectives.
Barclay et al., (2012) suggest product development is the modification and enhancement of a new product idea’s characteristics in order to maximise benefits to a potential buyer. Synthany (2013) shown (Appendix A) their own new product development life cycle. This suggests the need for prototypes to be developed, allowing an organisation to then see the product’s manufacturing workability in order to then further develop the product.
When a new golf GPS app- iGolf –was released, there was a significant marketing strategy that covered all of Kotler & Keller’s (2012) key elements. Their target market was golfers that owned a phone with built-in GPS systems in the US– a market approximately of 3.58 million people with a potential for growth as forecasts predict. The company that produced this app– L1 –aim to position themselves as producers of affordable, high-quality goods. This allowed them to gain significant market share over their less established competitors. iGolf was positioned as a premium, high-quality product, therefore making it affordable due to it’s significantly higher prices. Distribution was via electronic downloading and promotion occurred through social media, newsletters, websites, PR, merchandise shows and co-brandings. L1’s sales strategy of iGolf was to gain acceptance and allowance of all major US wireless companies for the distribution of the app through the app store. Negotiations also took place with mobile network providers to include the app within their service plans. Free trials and customer service for the app were also induced as L1’s sales promotion technique (L1 Technologies Inc, No date stated).
In regards to the cricket spike idea that has came through the previous phases of the NPD process, a relevant marketing strategy & development has been incorporated. Seen in Appendix B, the marketing strategy for the cricket spike idea incorporates all the elements of Kotler & Keller’s (2012) breakdown of marketing strategy.
Development of the product has been seen through the production of prototypes which give a basic reflection as to the feasibility of the manufacturing process. This will therefore allow scope for the product to further enhance through the New Product Development process.
Word Count 496.
Appendices
Appendix A
Appendix B
ELEMENT CRICKET SPIKE IDEA
TARGET MARKET Cricketers who train both indoors and outdoors throughout the year in the UK. Market size is roughly around 500,000 people (ECB, 2013) with that figure expected to grow due to the increasing popularity of 20/20 and The Ashes.
POSITIONING Medium-quality, extremely affordable, niche market product. As the product is new to market, the price would therefore be lower than existing spiked cricket shoes (Appendix C).
DISTRIBUTION The product will be distributed through external sources in major sports equipment shops in-store and online. The major shops to sell this product will be Sports Direct, Pro-Direct Cricket and CricketSupplies.com.
SALES PROMOTION This will occur through free trial runs of the cricket spike at selected county cricket clubs throughout the UK in which anyone can attend. This will also occur at the major cricket-playing universities throughout the UK. Advertisements through university newsletters and popular online cricket forums.
LONG RUN SALES STRATEGY As the cricket spike will be an infrequently purchased product (Appendix D), new customers will always need to be found to generate increasing sales. Therefore, the long-run sales strategy for the product is to break into the international market online and in international cricket stores. To increase the market share of the product, the aim is to get the product endorsed by 5 different international cricketers after the first 2 years, therefore allowing for increased prices due to the projected increase in demand.
Appendix C
Appendix D
Product Life Cycle Sales (Kotler & Keller, 2012)
Reference List
Barclay, I., Dann, Z., & Holroyd, P. (2012) New Product Development. Oxford: Heinemann.
ECB. (2013) Question and answers. Available at: http://www.ecb.co.uk/twelfthman/interactive/q-and-a/2841,2841,QA.html Last accessed 4th December 2013.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2012) Marketing Management. Essex: Pearson Education. pp54-80.
L1 Technologies Inc. (No date stated) iGolf Marketing Plan. San Diego.
Shankar, V., Carpenter, G. S., Farley, J., & Hamilton, B. A. (2012) Handbook of marketing strategy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Synthany. (2013) Our Products. Available at: http://synanthysolutions.com/products.html# Last accessed 3rd December 2013.
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