PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Competitive Product Development



Competitive Product Development

Introduction

This paper will be discussing a project plan. Working for a company that manufacturer's food processors, I will be assuming myself as a project manager. I have been assigned a task within the R&D department to come up with a variation of an existing domestic food processor that company produces. The discussion part of this paper contains following; 5W's for Six-Sigma separately, Project team structure, Organizations evaluation, Gantt chart, and Stakeholders. The purpose of this assignment is to show understanding of how competitive new products are developed and at the same time minimising the risks of the concept failing or in the event that the concept is unlikely to make profit, that the project costs are minimised before the project is terminated.

Project Description

All though in UK, the sales of “Food processors” have been declining as nine out of every four households now have a Food processor; it is still a growing market in many international markets as it is a tried and true technology and is greatly becoming one of the standard kitchen appliances. The company is targeting this kitchen appliance market in South-East Asia, and also restaurants where microwaves have become a de- facto standard for heating foods. All though the market leader Samsung has an edge, we believe we can compete because the unique features of our product offering a more-for-less pricing. Food processor, as a consumer product, does not have much exposure in the Bangladeshi market. In this country, most consumers tend to heat their food using gas stoves. Our objective is to make consumers shift from old ways of mixing to Food processors ovens as a primary way to mix food products. We hope while fulfilling this objective, we will reach a 5% market share in the while achieving break-even by the year end (Marcum & Smith, 2008: 121).

The following marketing plan includes strategy based on 4P's of marketing- product, pricing, promotion, and positioning. Focus has also been enforced upon advertisements and budgeting, since all companies do worry about financial limitations even if the companies are firmly established. Food processor, being a consumer product, is still in the growth stage in terms of usage and sales although the market is already flooded with Chinese products. Every brand, even the cheapest ones, knows what a customer desires and invests heavily on R&D to provide them with those necessities. Therefore it's rather difficult to select an area to focus, for gaining competitive advantage. Some top brands, such as National, Kenwood, etc, have already captured majority of the market and the rest are occupied by the cheap Chinese brands. In this situation, the new entrant possesses its own strengths in order to penetrate the market successfully: 'financial strength' to spend heavily on research and R&D to find the proper specifications and 'creativity' to communicate the product designed for the customer through extensive promotion in order to capture the potential market and try to convince customers to shift to our product (Marcum & ...