Product and Product Management

Module 1: Product and Product Management

• Product is essential to any business that aims at satisfying consumer needs and wants.
• Key product-related decisions influence the success of a business strategy.

The Tangible Product

• Includes aspects that can be physically touched and held.
• Extends to characteristics influencing buyer decisions.

Intangible Products

• These are non-physical goods such as digital licenses and software.
• They are valuable, but their valuation is less straightforward.

Four Classifications of Products

Convenience Goods

• Purchased repeatedly without much thought.
• Consumers tend to stick to a brand unless motivated to switch by factors like advertising or placement.

Shopping Goods

• Shoppers research and compare these more extensively before purchase.
• Not usually impulse buys and include items like clothes and home decor.

Specialty Goods

• Unique characteristics and brand identification that have buyers willing to make a special effort to purchase.
• Examples are luxury cars and high-fashion clothing.

Unsought Goods

• Goods and services that consumers don't often purchase, either due to lack of need or awareness.

Product Line

• Related products marketed under a single brand and sold by the same company.
• Companies use multiple product lines with distinct brand names to improve usability.

Product Mix

• The total number of product lines and individual offerings by a company.
• Also known as product assortment or portfolio; varies in breadth across companies.

Product Mix Strategies

Width

• Indicates the number of different product lines a company offers.
• Wide product mix = diverse product range
• Narrow product mix = focus on a specific category

Length

• The total number of products within a product line.
• Long product mix = many products
• Short product mix = limited products

Depth

• The number of variations available for each product.
• Deep product mix = many options
• Shallow product mix = few options

Consistency

• The degree of similarity among product lines.
• Consistent product mix = products closely related.
• Inconsistent product mix = unrelated products.

Product Management

• Aims at developing new products.
• Focuses on building the right product correctly.
• Connects the development team with marketing, sales, and customer success aligning with the business vision.
• It defines the "what" and "why" of solutions to customer problems.
• Encompasses planning, development, launch, and product lifecycle management.

Inbound vs. Outbound Product Management

• Companies often split product management responsibilities across departments.

Inbound Product

• Involves market research and competitive analysis.
• Responsibilities include customer research, business case analysis, product road mapping, and market prioritization.

Product Roadmap

• A shared resource defining the product vision, direction, priorities, and progress over time.

Output Product

• Focuses on product marketing, including branding, advertising, and product launches.
• Responsibilities include launch plans, messaging, sales tools, marketing programs, and market analysis.

Roles in Product Management

• Varied roles like chief product officer, product manager, product owner, and product marketing manager.

Chief Product Officer (CPO)

• Leads product organization; also known as VP or head of product that supervises product creation.
• Key skills include communication, data analysis, leadership, customer sensitivity, and decision-making

Product Manager

• Sets product vision
• Communicates vision across departments

Project Manager

• Breaks vision into tasks
• Plans project timelines

Product Manager vs Project Manager Responsibilities

• Product Manager = Setting product vision

• Project Manager = Breaking down initiatives into tasks

• One person or a whole team can manage product management depending on company size.

• Sometimes, one person has to act as CEO, product manager, and product marketing manager.

• An effective product manager leads the team from strategy to execution ensuring that all the members are working towards a common goal.

• Without product management, a product team is without a "conductor".

Product Manager Responsibilities

• Setting the strategic plan for product creation and ensuring its execution.
• This includes: market research, setting product vision, creating a product roadmap, and coordinating teams.
• Main responsibilities = set the strategy, share this strategy, and oversee its execution.

Software for Product Managers

• Product managers should use tools that streamline their work and centralize information.
• Handy software features, include user tracking/analysis, customer survey tools, prototyping, roadmapping, task management, data management/sharing, and instant messaging.

Module 2: Marketing Plan

• The Marketing Plan describes market conditions and strategy on how to distribute, price and promote products.
• It is an outline of the advertising strategy used to reach the target market
• The marketing plan is based on the overall marketing strategy

Differences Between Business and Marketing Plans

The Marketing Plan

• Focuses on marketing actitives of a venture for 1 year+
• Varies significatnly for a firm in the industry
• Standalone doccument to assess if the venture is meeting its goals

The Business Plan

• A road map for the entire organization
• Focuses on marketing, R&D, operations, manufacturing, projections, and growth.
• Updated regularly to provide management goals

Marketing Research for New Venture

• Can mean conducting some marketing research
• Includes who will buy, market size, which price to charge, best distribution channel, and best effective promotion strategy
• Focus groups are not costly
• Can be conducted by the entreprenuer or external supplier/consultant
• Entreprenuers should focus on peparing the marketing plan annually with assessing goals and objectives for the next year
• It establishes how to compete in the marketplace
• It can assing cost to each strategies

Understanding the marketing plan

• Marketing plan = A road map
• Where have we been?
• Where do we want to go?
• How do we get there?

Steps Involved in Market Research

• Define purpose
• Gather secondary source
• Gather primary soures
• Analyze and interpret the results

Characteristics of Marketing Plan

• Provide a strategy for accomplishing compan's misson
• Based on facts and valid assumptions
• Provide countiniuty to meet longer term goals
• Should be short and simple
• The success may depen on flexibity
• Specify performance to be monitored and controlled

Steps for Preparing Market Plan

• Define business situations- understanding the past and present acheivements. Gives insight about scenarios in the market and customper acceptence

Defining Target market

• Target market includes understanding potential customers- helps determining appropriate market action.
• Includes Market segemntation- dividiing into groups to target

Considering strenght and weakness

• Refers to the core as areas specialization and weakness in production capabilities
• Establishment of goals. Marketing goals should be clear and specific to indicate target customers and sales promotion

Defining Market Strategy

• It refers to specific activities outlined to meet goals product description Pricing should be considered along with cost, margin, etc. Distribution refers to being available to customers Promotion refers to entrepreneurs advertising to customers

Marketing Strategy

• Understand the nature of the product
• Budgeting- estimate expenses
• Implementation- informed to work force
• Understanding marketing progress