Thanks to Rory Sutherland, this weeks’ learning has been interesting and fun. I have enjoyed listening to the successful advertiser. The concept of perceived value versus real value was the most interesting to me. Examples of diamond shaped Shreddies hit the point home on perceived value. I personally agree to the perception of good wine being tied to price as have witnessed that among my social circle. David Bell’s video on Dodge Ram example highlighted the importance of understanding customer preferences to identify how the product should look and feel like. Chapter six gave good examples to explain the process of developing a product from idea generation to commercialization. A typical product goes through one or all of the stages of a product’s lifecycle, introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
Consider various "products" you use. Can you think of the various levels of this product?
In order to develop a product that will be sustainable, it is critical to understand what the products’ core is, what the actual product is and what falls in the augmented category. Of products I use, MAC and Iphone are the first two examples that come to mind. I have been using MAC for close to five years. I have been an Iphone user for only six months, but have become a fan. These products provide the basic functionality of a laptop and phone respectively, but additionally offer many benefits such as the ability to download apps, use wi-fi and utilize the music player functionality to name a few. The ability to take notes and put reminders on my smart phone is an augmented level benefit that I as a consumer appreciate a lot.
Can you think of cases where products have become obsolete?
Online news media has made newspapers close to being obsolete unless you belong to the generation that still craves for their newspaper and morning tea. Online news media are the same cost if not cheaper, can be accessed from anywhere and offer the same benefits as a hard copy news paper. Kindle has made books obsolete in some capacity. Smart phones such as Iphone, Blackberry, Android have replaced Palm devices. Cameras with ever increasing functionalities are continuing to replace their previous models on a regular basis. A hammer was a required item in every household a couple decades back, now electronic drills do just about the same job in a much shorter time and with less effort. VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) to DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) transition is another example of product gone obsolete.
Considering the diagram of page 102 of your text how do you think product development has been affected by shorter product lifecycles? Has technology affected product development?
Shorter product lifecycles have shortened almost all stages of the product development process. The pressure to release the product fast is one of the worries for marketers; another big worry is to enhance product functionality on an ongoing basis to remain competitive in the market place. Reaching the maturity state is tough but even tougher is to remain at this stage. Technological advancements have been instrumental in reducing the product development cycle time to levels that were un-imaginable a decade or two back. Life time of personal computers, laptops, mobile phones, smart phones and just about any electronic gadget is continuing to shrink. In fact, many companies are starting to market their electronic gadgets with an implicit indication to the buyer that a replacement in couple years may be required (to remain ‘abreast’ with technological advancements).
Another interesting activity for this week has been to exercise one’s creative thinking via the Ideation project. Talking about creative thinking, I get reminded of a Dilbert joke one of my team members shared a few years back.
Love the Dilbert post. Great job Sangeti
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