Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Product Strategies For The Asia Pacific
Product Strategies For The Asia Pacific
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7-Levels of Product
Hierarchy
Product need—to satisfy a need e.g. feet protection
Product class—a family of products having similar
function e.g. all shoes
Product line—a group of products with closely related
functions e.g. sports shoes
Product type—products within a line having similar
form e.g. basket-ball shoes
Brand—a name representing a product or line e.g.
Nike
Item (Stock Keeping Unit)—a unit item e.g. one pair
of Nike basket-ball shoe
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Product-Mix Decisions
Decisions on the product mix (the number of
product lines and items in each line) that the
company may offer
A single product
Most firms started off as a single-product company
Multiple products
e.g. Creative Technology markets sound cards as well
as MP3 players
A systems of products
e.g. Nikon sells camera, lenses, filters & other options
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Product-Line strategy
How many product lines should we
have?
Example: Delft Sensor Systems offer a
comprehensive range of products, including
portable and platform mounted night vision
systems and thermal imaging systems,
head- and helmet mounted displays, laser
rangefinders and fire control systems
(Source: http://www.oip.be/press/brazil.htm)
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Product-Line strategy
(cont’d)
How many product items in each line?
Example: Both Gardenia and Bonjour
launched new flavors in January 1999 to
nibble away at each other’s market
share of a loaf estimated to be worth
about $80 million
(Source: ST, Home, Jan29/99)
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Expanding the Product Line
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Expanding the Product Line
(cont’d)
3. Brand extension: Product category
extension that uses an existing brand
name e.g.
Cerebos introduced Brands Essence of
Chicken with TangKwei targeting women
Nestle extended its Bear Brand
condensed milk in Thailand by
introducing Bear Brand with Honey
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More on Product Line Extension
Downward stretch by introducing lower range of the
products e.g.
In 1989 the Shangri-La, a chain of deluxe hotels and resorts in
Asia established the Traders Hotels, a sister brand to deliver
high value, mid-range, quality accommodation to the business
traveler
Mercedes introduced the “baby Merz” to cater to the upper
class mid-sized range of the market
Upward stretch by entering the high end of the market
e.g.
Toyota introduced the Lexus and Nissan introduced the Infiniti
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Product Line Extension (cont’d)
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New Product Strategy
New products are critical to survival
New-product development (NPD) is
essential for companies seeking growth
It should be an on-going, well organized
NPD process having top-management
support
What is a new product? (see next slide)
From a firm's perspective, a new product is
a product that it is unfamiliar in any way
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Definition of
Product Newness
1. Products new to the world; usually
revolutionary products resulting from
product innovation e.g
When Creative Technology first
introduced the Sound-blaster
When disposable cameras were first
introduced
When Seiko introduced the Seiko
Kinetic Relay, a watch that can go into
suspended animation 13
Definition of Product
Newness (cont’d)
Products new to the firm
Improvements to existing products e.g.
In 1960 Kao introduced shampoo liquid and in
1970 introduced Kao Merit shampoo (anti-
dandruff)
Additions to existing lines e.g.
In 1965 Kao introduced the Kao Tender hair
conditioner
Costs reductions and re-positionings
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Example of NPD--Logitech
“Logitech, the world's biggest maker of
computer mice, has come up with a
mouse that allows the user to feel
what is seen on the
screen. This
mouse [is] called the iFreeMouseMan”
AP (August 22, 2000)
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Product Convergence
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Generic Positioning Strategies
Our product is unique
e.g. Raffles Hotel (oldest hotel); Westin Hotel
(tallest hotel)
Our product is different
e.g. Seng Choon eggs (low in cholesterol)
Listerine (kills germs)
Amex Blue credit card (6-month rate of
15.9% vs the market rate of 24%)
Our product is similar
e.g. Thai fragrant rice 18
Approaches to Positioning
By attributes
e.g. Singapore Airlines (first class comfort)
By benefits
e.g. Citibank Credit Card (7/24 availability)
By price/quality e.g. Proton
By usage or application e.g.100Plus (fluid replenishment in
sports)
By users e.g. Johnson Baby Shampoo; J&J Affinity Shampoo
(hair conditioner for women)
By product class
e.g. Camay soap (with bath oils—not just soap)
By competitors e.g. Avis against Hertz
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Product Positioning Using
Perceptual & Preference Maps
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Positioning Statement
For [a target segment], the [concept] is [the
primary claim] because [it is the single most
important factor].
Example:
For Seng Choon eggs, the low cholesterol level
is the only healthy alternative because it is
safe for frequent consumption
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Example of a 2D Perceptual Map
for Laptop
Brand A
Sl
o w-
sp
ee
d
Performance
Light-
w eight
le
Va
y
St
lue
Brand B
Appearance 22
Repositioning
Why reposition?
Competitors position next to you
Consumer preferences changed
New consumer preference cluster
Original mistake
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Repositioning (cont’d)
Repositioning among existing customers
e.g. Cerebos repositioned BRAND’S from a
traditional therapeutic and recuperative tonic to
one for preventative health maintenance
APB repositioned Tiger Beer as a beer for all time
Repositioning among new users
BRAND’S essence of chicken for students
Repositioning for new uses
Repositioning BRAND’S as a base for double-boil
cooking
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Product-Overlap Strategy
This strategy refers to a situation in which a
company decides to compete against its own
brand by using:
Competing brands
e.g. Gillette Atra, Sensor, Mach 3
Private labeling
e.g. Sin Sin Chilli Sauce, Watson Vitamins
OEM
e.g. IBM selling magneto-resistance (MR) heads to OEM
disk drive developers/manufacturers
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Product-Elimination
Strategy
When a product’s performance is falling
short of expectations and continued
support is no longer justified, it’s time
to pull it out of the marketplace
How?
Harvesting, line-simplification, total-line
divestment
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Value-Marketing Strategy
Value-marketing strategy means delivering real
product performance based on the following
promises
Quality strategy
Customer-service
Time-based
Example:
Dell cuts the duration from order to delivery of most
of its products to the minimum
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Brands
“A rose by any name smells as sweet.” True or
false?
Would you go vacationing on Hog Island?
Why are Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Kentucky
Fried Chicken (KFC) successful?
Do you think Maikenji would be half as
successful?
Maikenji restaurant in Badaling, north of Beijing
combines the Chinese Characters used in the names
for McDonald’s and KFC and offers a menu similar to
KFC located 100 metres away (AP 11,Jul2001)
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Brands (continued)
“Buildings age and become dilapidated.
Machines wear out. Cars rust. But what
lives on are brands.”
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What is a brand?
Six levels of meaning:
Attributes e.g. High resale value
Benefits e.g. Safety
Values e.g. Brand loyalty
Culture e.g. organized and efficient
Personality e.g. serious
Type of users e.g. by occupation
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Alternative Brand
Strategies
1.No brand identity
Small firms with unknown brands e.g.
small tailoring outfits
2.Private brands
Retailers with established brand
names e.g. NTUC Fairprice
3.Corporate brands
Family name e.g. This Fashion
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Alternative Brand Strategies
(cont’d)
4. Product line extension
Create cost advantage e.g. Novena’s collection of
an extensive range of furniture at reasonable price
5. Specific product
Individual brand e.g In addition to the Novena
brand, Novena Holdings also carry the Castilla
brand of Italian designed furniture
6. Combination
e.g. Novena Holdings’ Novena Collection, Dickson
Beech Collection and the White Collection;
Seiko’s Alba and Pulsar
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The Branding Process
From commodity to product
e.g. air travel
From product to brand
e.g. Singapore Airlines
From brand to experience
e.g. Romance in the air
From experience to the heart
e.g. A Great Way to Fly
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Branding on the Web
Profile of “Gen-N”
How to harness the Internet for brand-
building?
By rewarding brand loyalty and updating your
site etc.
Decision-influence factor
Conventional branding => image
Online branding => customer experience
The issue of trust in a brand 34
(Source: Hi-Tech, Hi-Touch Branding by Temporal and Lee)
Old Brands Strategy
Old brands survive due to emotional bond
with the consumer
For slow moving brands either revive it with
marketing money or kill it
Growing interest in old brands because
brand names carry value that is getting more
expensive and risky to create
When re-promoting old brands, do not
ignore younger consumers
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Source: “Selling”, Fortune, April 28, 1986