1

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT (MARK30063)

FOR ONLINE STUDENTS

Compiled by

PROF. FELIX D. RAMOS, Jr.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

COURSE OUTLINE P.2

TOPIC 1 WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT p.4

TOPIC 2 THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PRODUCT MANAGEMENT p.10
TOPIC 3.THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP GROWTH MATRIX p.19

TOPIC 4 THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE p.24

TOPIC 5 THE 7Ps OF MARKETING: A KEY CONCEPT IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT p.29

SUPPLEMANTARY ARTICLE ON HOW TO WRITE A MANUSCRIPT (separate file)

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COURSE OUTLINE:

The Product Management subject offers a comprehensive look into the elements and skills
necessary to manage a successful product management process from product strategy to
specification, execution, launch, and growth. Students will discover real-world tools to enhance
their product management practice and broaden their understanding of best practices.
Coursework includes group work and lectures by assigned professors.

TOPIC 1 WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

1. Product Management
2. Tasks
3. Role of a product manager
4. Responsibilities
5. Product management in companies
6. Strategic product management
7. Market analysis
8. Company analysis
9. Technical product management
10. Product development
11. Product marketing
12. Product development
13. Inbound and outbound

TOPIC 2 THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

1. What is Product Management?
2. What isn’t Product Management?
3. What Does Effective Product Management Look Like?
4. Roadmaps: Product Management’s Showcase
5. B2B vs. B2C: Two markets, but not two different worlds
6. Optimizing Product Management Operations
7. Internal and External Meetings
8. Updating Your Product Management Toolbox
9. Organizational Options
10. Post-Launch Responsibilities
11. Conclusion: Product Management Strategy

TOPIC 3.THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP GROWTH MATRIX

1. Relative market share.

2. Market growth rate.
3. Dogs.
4. Cash cows.
5. Stars.
6. Question marks.
7. Advantages and disadvantages
8. Benefits of the matrix:
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TOPIC 4 THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

1. Definition:
2. How Product Life Cycles Work
3. The Product Life cycle
4. Examples of Product Life cycle
5. The International Product Life Cycle Theory

TOPIC 5 THE 7Ps OF MARKETING: A KEY CONCEPT IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENTC

1. Product
2. Prices
3. Promotion
4. Place
5. Packaging
6. Positioning
7. Marketing Theories: From 4 Ps to 7Ps
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TOPIC 1 WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?

OVERVIEW:
The role may consist of product development and product marketing, which are different (yet
complementary) efforts, with the objective of maximizing sales revenues, market share, and profit
margins. The product management is an active part of the initiation of a new product concept
through to the readiness and commercial launch and sales of new products. Product management
drives the business case and justification to start new product development and has an active
role throughout the steps and or stages to develop, test and launch a new product.
Product management is also involved in product change and lifecycle decisions and planning.
Product elimination can begin with the identification of candidates for a change in lifecycle (in
some cases due to a new product launch and therefore replacement, a lack of sales of a product
and therefore a phase out plan, or an obsolescence in technology and therefore a immediate
removal from sale). This process then proceeds with a cross functional plan to remove the product
from active sale.
The obsolescence plan will include a comprehensive view of the impact on the organization
(inventory associated with the product, assets and manufacturing / assembly resources
associated with the producing the products, active commercial agreements, service and support
requirements, and marketing assets and areas to update and update.
COURSE OUTCOMES:

At the end of this course, successful student(s) would be able to have a meaningful, observable
and measurable knowledge, skills and / or dispositions relating to Product Management: The
following topics below will be the contents or focus of significant learnings:

 Product Management
 Tasks
 Role of a product manager
 Responsibilities
 Product management in companies
 Strategic product management
 Market analysis
 Company analysis
 Technical product management
 Product development
 Product marketing
 Product development
 Inbound and outbound

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Learning outcomes are statements that describe significant and essential learning that learners
have achieved, and can reliably demonstrate at the end of a course or program. In other words,
learning outcomes identify what the learner will know and be able to do by the end of a course or
program.
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By using Bloom's taxonomy to identify verbs to describe participants’ learning. These are:

 Knowledge/Remembering: define, list, recognize;

 Comprehension/Understanding: characterize, describe, explain, identify, locate,
recognize, sort;
 Application/Applying: choose, demonstrate, implement, perform;
 Analysis/Analyzing: analyze, categorize, compare, differentiate;
 Evaluation/Evaluating: assess, critique, evaluate, rank, rate;
 Synthesis/Creating: construct, design, formulate, organize, synthesize.

COURSE MATERIALS:

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Is an organizational function within a company dealing with new product development, business
justification, planning, verification, forecasting, pricing, product launch, and marketing of a product
or products at all stages of the product life cycle. Similarly, product lifecycle management
(PLM)[1] integrates people, data, processes and business systems. It provides product information
for companies and their extended supply chain enterprise.
TASKS
The product manager is often responsible for analyzing market conditions and defining features
or functions of a product and for overseeing the production of the product. The role of product
management spans many activities from strategic to tactical and varies based on the
organizational structure of the company. To maximize the impact and benefits to an organization,
Product management must be an independent function separate on its own.
While involved with the entire product lifecycle, the product management's main focus is on
driving new product development. According to the Product Development and Management
Association (PDMA), superior and differentiated new products—ones that deliver unique benefits
and superior value to the customer—are the number one driver of success and product
profitability.
ROLE OF A PRODUCT MANAGER
Depending on the company size and history, product management has a variety of functions and
roles. Sometimes there is a product manager, and sometimes the role of product manager is
shared by other roles. Frequently there is Profit and Loss (P&L) responsibility as a key metric for
evaluating product manager performance. In some companies, the product management function
is the hub of many other activities around the product. In others, it is one of many things that need
to happen to bring a product to market and actively monitor and manage it in-market. In very large
companies, the product manager may have effective control over shipment decisions to
customers, when system specifications are not being met.
Product management often serves an inter-disciplinary role, bridging gaps within the company
between teams of different expertise, most notably between engineering-oriented teams and
commercially oriented teams. For example, product managers often translate business objectives
set for a product by Marketing or Sales into engineering requirements (sometimes called a
Technical Specification). Conversely, they may work to explain the capabilities and limitations of
the finished product back to Marketing and Sales (sometimes called a Commercial Specification).
Product managers may also have one or more direct reports who manage operational tasks
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and/or a change manager who can oversee new initiatives. Manufacturing is separate from the
research function, the product manager has the responsibility to bridge the gaps if any exist.
In most technology companies, most product managers possess knowledge in the following
areas: computer science, business and user experience. Also, in many companies the role is
understood as a project manager. The difference between a product manager and a project
manager is that the project manager focuses on building a solution and tracking its progress,
while a product manager focuses on solving a customer problem.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Examples of the responsibilities of a product manager are: Perform market and competition
analysis, initiate product and product-specific service improvements, requirement profiles
(specifications) for new products and product-specific services, participate in the specifications
creation, create and implement market launch concepts, support and train the sales as well as
accompany field service employees on customer visits.
The product manager is responsible both for the development of the product strategy and for
planning, implementation and coordination of the measures derived from it and for the permanent
and final control. They are responsible for managing products across departments.
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT IN COPANIES
The Open Product Management Workflow™ (OPMW) - a step by step guidance for product
managers
Product management is typically divided into three parts: strategic product management,
technical product management and Go-To-Market (product marketing), which is illustrated in the
Open Product Management Workflow model. In addition to the three-part division, this model
shows which tasks and steps must be performed by product management in the course of a
product cycle in order to produce an innovative and profitable product.
STRATEGIC PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Strategic product management encompasses all strategic aspects and tasks required to make an
existing or future product successful. This includes, among other things, the information analysis,
the development of a concept as well as coordination and optimization measures. In technical
product management there is a similar approach.
MARKET ANALYSIS
The market analysis identifies existing market problems and trends.
For the determination of market problems, the conducting of interviews with customers as well as
potentials (reports) has established itself, whereby existing problems are specifically asked for.
Market trends are determined by the analysis of studies or with the help of market research. The
results are checked by means of larger & regular surveys and that a market problem only refers
to one persona ("stereotype for a group of people with concrete characteristics and concrete
behavior") in a certain scenario. If several products/markets are involved, they can be structured
according to criteria such as market segments, product segments, functions, technologies or
regions and later be illustrated, for example, in a product-market matrix. Market segmentation is
of particular importance; strategic product management focuses on the target segments that have
the greatest market potential and require the lowest costs.
COMPANY ANALYSIS
Both for the future market message and for improved communication with customers, it is
important to determine the attributes and added values that differentiate the company from the
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competition in the long term: "If you can do one thing best, you should do the one thing you can
do". A competence analysis forms the basis for this. A competitive analysis and a SWOT
analysis can provide further clarity. While the competitive analysis reveals gaps, among other
things, the portfolio, price model, market message and communication analysis, the SWOT
analysis determines the company's position in a specific market. In addition, the analysis can
show what opportunities for further development and difficulties in implementation exist.
TECHNICAL PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Technical product management includes all aspects and tasks necessary to design a functional
physical new product. There is a procedure for this like in strategic product management:
REQUIREMENTS RATING
At the beginning the requirements from the strategic product management must be evaluated,
which consist of the parts problem, persona and scenario. In practice the information is written for
it on so-called "Story Cards". With the help of an evaluation scheme with the criteria importance,
number of reports and priority, the requirements can be weighted and prioritized. The importance
is based on the different customer types in the following decreasing order: evaluating customer,
potential customer, existing customer. The priority can be calculated by multiplying the
importance and the number of reports. If required, the scheme can be supplemented with
additional information such as costs, usability or time expenditure.[4]
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
If the requirements are sufficiently prioritized, they can be bundled into work packages and put in
order; for this purpose, the respective priorities are summed up and an overall priority for a work
package is calculated. Afterwards the time and costs required for the work packages must be
estimated for product development. Then engineers devote themselves to the solution of the work
packages, giving the entire team information about their current status in regular status meetings
and modifying the schedule by possible delays. In order to check the functionality of a product
solution or to reduce the risk of undesirable developments, the creation of a pre prototype and a
prototype is recommended.
PRODUCT MARKETING
The results from strategic product management serve as a prerequisite for a successful product
management (Go-To-Market). Product marketing is a component of product management that is
under the jurisdiction of a company's product manager or product marketing manager. The
product marketing manager is primarily responsible for the profitability of the products, product
launches, messaging and all sales-supporting materials. Together with the communication team
(press department) the plan for all marketing activities and the communication channels has to
be created. At the same time measuring points (KPIs) need to be defined for reviewing the
success of the marketing measures and regularly present their evaluation. Product marketing is
involved in strategic derivatives such as market strategies, distribution strategies, positioning and
communication strategies. Sales documents, presentations and tools from the results have to be
created while the sales channels need to be supported with the relevant market facts from the
strategic section so that their forecast is fact-based and more accurate. Through the contact with
customers and non-customers the buyer persona develop steadily and their buying criteria,
channels and problems van be identified and optimized. The product marketing manager creates
the positioning for all defined market segments and enables the sales channels to deliver the
persona-specific selling points.
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Responsibilities within product marketing include:

 Product Life Cycle considerations

 Product differentiation
 Product naming and branding
 Product positioning and outbound messaging
 Promoting the product externally with press, customers, and partners
 Conducting customer feedback and enabling (pre-production, beta software)
 Launching new products to market
 Monitoring the competition
N.B. Product development is the process of building products that will be consumed or
used by others. Product managers often work collaboratively with engineers, designers,
and other stakeholders to accomplish tasks, such as:

 Testing products
 Identifying new product candidates
 Considering new candidates
 Gathering the voice of customers
 Defining product requirements
 Determining business-case and feasibility
 Scoping and defining new products at high level
 Evangelizing new products within the company
 Building product roadmaps, particularly technology roadmaps
 Developing all products on schedule, working to a critical path
 Ensuring products are within optimal price margins and up to specifications
 Ensuring products are manufacturable and optimizing cost of components and procedures.

INBOUND AND OUTBOUND

Many refer to inbound (product development) and outbound (product marketing) functions.
Inbound product management (aka inbound marketing) is the "radar" of the organization and
involves absorbing information like customer research, competitive intelligence, industry analysis,
trends, economic signals and competitive activity[6] as well as documenting requirements and
setting product strategy.
In comparison, outbound activities are focused on distributing or pushing messages, training sales
people, go to market strategies and communicating messages through channels like advertising,
PR and events.
In many organizations the inbound and outbound functions are performed by the same person.
As these terms are under discussion, another way of looking at these activities is upstream and
downstream product management, where 'upstream' is referring to any activity that helps to
define, create, or improve the product, while 'downstream' refers to any activity that promotes the
product.[9] This avoids the confusion with the term "inbound marketing" which nowadays clearly
refers to a way of doing downstream product management, referring to 'making the product
accessible', i.e. it can be found by suspects and prospects (compared to 'outbound marketing',
where the product is 'pushed' in front of the suspect or prospect). The confusion stems mainly
from the mix up between the term "Marketing" as a discipline, comprising Product Management,
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Mar Com (Marketing Communications), etc. and using the same term 'Marketing' as a synonym
for 'Promotion' or 'advertising.
It comes as a surprise that this confusion and ambiguity is hard to understand- because if you
name the main (value creating) departments in today's organizations, you can clearly assign to
Sales, R&D, Operations, and Marketing their respective core functions and areas of responsibility.
The core function of Marketing, that differentiates it from Sales, Operations, and R&D is the
ownership of the marketing mix (= 4 P: Product, Place, Price, Promotion). Still, many
organizations put under 'Marketing' only Market Communications (Mar Com), which is just the
operational end of marketing and only a subset of what 'Promotion' comprises. From a Product
Management perspective, Mar Com is a supporting function (like IT, HR, Controlling etc.). In
organizations, where the Product Management is weak or not existent, its tasks are taken over
by the other departments (i.e. sales define the distribution ('Place'), operations define the prices,
R&D defines the product, Mar Com decides on the promotion.
COMPILATION REFERENCES:

1. Kurkin, O.; Januška, M. (2010). Product Life Cycle in Digital factory [In Knowledge
management and innovation: A business competitive edge perspective]. Cairo:
International Business Information Management Association (IBIMA). pp. 1881–
1886. ISBN 9780982148945.
2. Argouslidis, P.; Baltas, G. (2007). "Structure in product line management: The role of
formalization in service elimination decisions". Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science. 35: 475–491. doi:10.1007/s11747-006-0004-2.
3. Kahn, Kenneth B. (Editor). The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development. Second
Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005. ISBN 0-471-48524-1

ACTIVITIES / ASSESSMENTS:

All academic requirements needed for the computation of grading systems designed for
Online Instructional Materials will be on paper works (e.g. Terms papers, Essays, and
Manuscripts or Monographs)

1.Essay Writings on the following topics: 10%

 Product management in companies
 Strategic product management

2.TECHNICAL FORMAT: (OPTIONAL)

 Bond Paper 8.5 x 11 (Short)
 Font: Arial
 Line Spacing: Single
 Paragraph Spacing: 1.5
 Margin: 1” (top, bottom, left, right)
 Minimum # of pages 5 or more each topic
 Use in – text citations, referencing (optional)
 PDF file format
 Due date: Nov 30, 2020 (subject to changes on University directives)
 My email address: felixramosjr.magdalo33@yahoo.com
 Cell phone # 0961 7941791 / 0995 3478025

3. WRITTEN OR MANUAL OUTPU

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TOPIC 2 THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

OVERVIEW:

Product managers are responsible for guiding the success of a product and leading the cross-
functional team that is responsible for improving it. It is an important organizational role especially
in technology companies that sets the strategy, roadmap, and feature definition for a product or
product line. The position may also include marketing, forecasting, and profit and loss (P&L)
responsibilities. In many ways, the role of a product manager is similar in concept to a brand
manager at a consumer packaged goods company.

Product managers provide the deep product expertise needed to lead the organization and make
strategic product decisions. They often analyze market and competitive conditions, laying out a
product vision that is differentiated and delivers unique value based on customer demands. The
role spans many activities from strategic to tactical and provides important cross-functional
leadership most notably between engineering, marketing, sales, and support teams.

The product manager is the person responsible for defining the why, when, and what of the
product that the engineering team builds. This means they lead cross-functional teams from a
product's conception all the way through to its launch.

COURSE OUTCOMES:
At the end of this course, successful student(s) would be able to have a meaningful, observable
and measurable knowledge, skills and / or dispositions relating to Product Management: The
following topics below will be the contents or focus of significant learnings:

 What is Product Management?

 What isn’t Product Management?
 What Does Effective Product Management Look Like?
 Roadmaps: Product Management’s Showcase
 B2B vs. B2C: Two markets, but not two different worlds
 Optimizing Product Management Operations
 Internal and External Meetings
 Updating Your Product Management Toolbox
 Organizational Options
 Post-Launch Responsibilities
 Conclusion: Product Management Strategy

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Learning outcomes are statements that describe significant and essential learning that learners
have achieved, and can reliably demonstrate at the end of a course or program. In other words,
learning outcomes identify what the learner will know and be able to do by the end of a course or
program.

By using Bloom's taxonomy to identify verbs to describe participants’ learning. These are:

 Knowledge/Remembering: define, list, recognize;

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 Comprehension/Understanding: characterize, describe, explain, identify, locate,

recognize, sort;
 Application/Applying: choose, demonstrate, implement, perform;
 Analysis/Analyzing: analyze, categorize, compare, differentiate;
 Evaluation/Evaluating: assess, critique, evaluate, rank, rate;
 Synthesis/Creating: construct, design, formulate, organize, synthesize.

COURSE MATERIALS:

What is Product Management?

The day-to-day tasks include a wide variety of strategic and tactical duties. Most product
managers or product owners do not take on all these responsibilities. In most companies, at least
some of them are owned by other teams or departments.
But most product professionals spend the majority of their time focused on the following:

 Conducting Research: Researching to gain expertise about the company’s market, user
personas, and competitors.

 Developing Strategy: Shaping the industry knowledge they’ve learned into a high-level
strategic plan for their product—including goals and objectives, a broad-strokes overview
of the product itself, and maybe a rough timeline.

 Communicating Plans: Developing a working strategic plan using a product

roadmap and presenting it to key stakeholders across their organization: executives,
investors, their development team, etc. Ongoing communication across their cross-
functional teams throughout the development process and beyond.

 Coordinating Development: Assuming they have received a green light to move forward
with their product’s strategic plan, coordinating with the relevant teams—product
marketing, development, etc.—to begin executing the plan.

 Acting on Feedback and Data Analysis: Finally, after building, testing, and introducing
the product to the marketplace, learning via data analysis and soliciting direct feedback
from users, what works, what doesn’t, and what to add. Working with the relevant teams
to incorporate this feedback into future iterations of the product.

What isn't Product Management?

Product managers owning the day-to-day details of a product’s development is a common
misconception. As we describe on our Product Management vs. Project Management page, this
is the role of a project manager.
A project manager is a person who has the overall responsibility for the successful initiation,
planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of a project. The project
manager should make sure they control risk and minimize uncertainty. ...
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Product management is a strategic function. Tasking product managers with determining a

product’s overall reason for being— the product’s “Why?”
They’re also responsible for communicating product objectives and plans for the rest of the
company. They must ensure everyone is working toward a shared organizational goal.
Product management encompasses a broad set of ongoing strategic responsibilities. They
shouldn’t be responsible for the ground-level details of the development process.
Smart organizations separate this function and assign tactical elements to project managers, such
as scheduling and managing workloads. This distinct division leaves the product manager free to
focus on the higher-level strategy.
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What Does Effective Product Management Look Like?

With a shared understanding of product management’s scope, we can dig into what it takes to BE
a product manager. Product managers find their way by following the paths of those who came
before them. And those more experienced in the profession have plenty of lessons to offer their
peers and newcomers.
You can’t get a degree in product management. There’s no single career path to get there. It’s
more about the skills required to do the job well than a particular pedigree.

Communication
Communication skills leap to the top of the list when considering what it takes to be a successful
product manager. So many aspects of the job rely on prowess in this domain.
To solicit and gather feedback, product managers need to be great listeners. They must also
know how to work those relationships and exhibit significant customer empathy.
Of course, customers aren’t the only source of input to the prioritization process. Product
managers must also work with various stakeholders to understand their goals and needs.
After that, product managers must succinctly convey the product’s mission. It should be a
synthesis of all those inputs turned into something easily consumable that others can be inspired
by.
With vision, goals, and the roadmap defined, product managers must socialize and evangelize
these pillars of the product to the entire organization. It’s all about creating alignment, generating
buy-in, and getting the whole company on the same page, including leveraging public forums
such as all-hands meetings, as well as smaller forums and one-on-one sessions.
Once the plans for the product begin taking shape, product managers must work extensively with
the product development organization. This collaboration includes engineers, who might not
always get along well with product managers, as well as architects and quality assurance teams.
To create a fantastic user experience, product managers must also collaborate with UX
designers. Nurturing a true partnership and not being merely transactional is key to delivering
exceptional products.
Finally, as the product gets ready to launch, there’s another round of communication and
coordination. Product management must educate and edit marketing plans for the product. They
also must provide the sales team with the necessary training and talking points they’ll need.

Technical skills
There may be no debate quite as polarizing in the product management community as this
subject. Just how technical must a product manager be? Will non-technical product managers
become extinct?
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There’s no debating that a product manager must have some level of technical understanding.
Luddites don’t make great product managers, at least not for software products.
Product managers must be conversant enough in the fundamentals for meaningful dialogue with
engineering. They must understand if they’re creating a massive amount of technical debt with
their decisions, as well as managing down existing debt. And they should probably be
knowledgeable enough to use their product and relate to the customers it’s intended to serve.
However, there’s no rule that product managers must know how to code or run an SQL query on
a database. While those might be practical skills, a product manager won’t be doing those things
daily.
And in organizations where there is an actual need for product managers with in-depth technical
know-how, they can always hire a technical product manager to fill that role.

Business savvy
When product managers dub themselves the “CEO of the product,” they’re generally referring to
this category of skills. Product managers may or may not carry responsibility for a product’s
revenue. But they’re integral to making sure the product is financially and strategically successful.
It starts by defining a vision and goals for the product. While these may come from the founder or
executive team, once established, product management must own them. Translating those
abstract ideas into the tactics required to make them a reality is all part of the job.
Other duties, such as finding product-market fit and assessing requests from
customers and prospects, also require keen business smarts.
To do so, product managers must think strategically, even when dealing with minutiae. No choice
is inconsequential. They must dynamically consider all possible repercussions to avoid negative
impacts on the customer experience or sales.
And then there are the numbers. Product managers must be conversant in the metrics that
matter. They must use data-driven decision making to propel the product forward. Growth,
revenue, and profitability all fall under product management’s purview, even if they’re not directly
responsible for them
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Optimizing Product Management Operations

Product managers have an often overwhelming amount of obligations. Time is a precious
commodity. They must be efficient and organized to conduct the necessary conversations and
meetings while still having enough bandwidth actually to get some work done.
Making decisions—and getting internal consensus on those decisions—can be a huge time suck.
To get through them all promptly, product managers must find a scalable way to get to an
agreement quickly. Clearly defined roles and a consistent process let the parties involved focus
on the subject at hand.
A divide-and-conquer approach is another tactic for getting more done in less time. Recognizing
the core strengths of everyone available, splitting up tasks and delegating things lets product
managers focus on what they do best while not neglecting anything else that’s important.
Product managers can also borrow some useful skills from their project management
counterparts. This includes defining explicit scopes and sticking to them, cutting down on
diversions and rat holes. It’s additionally helpful to create clear action plans and communicate
them to relevant colleagues to be sure everyone knows what they’re responsible for and
understand the expectations.
Even how product managers schedule their day can lead to increased output and higher-quality
working sessions. By minimizing context switching, product managers can cluster similar tasks
together to maintain focus and limit distractions.
This includes making time for strategic thinking. It’s tough to take a deep dive into a particular
subject when there are constant interruptions. Product managers must carve out time for this
critical task and create an environment where they can concentrate.

Internal and External Meetings

Meetings are unavoidable for product managers. They have the potential to offer tons of value.
But when mismanaged, they can turn unproductive and suck up time they don’t have to spare.
Among our meeting tips for product managers, the focus is on efficiency. Whether it’s limiting
attendance or defining a narrow scope, the goal is to have a purpose, stick to the plan and get it
over with as fast as possible.
Follow-through is also essential. Product managers should be taking notes and circulating key
information, as well as clarifying any action items before everyone leaves. Of course, the best
advice of all might be skipping the meeting altogether if it proves to be more distracting than
beneficial.

Capitalizing on Customer Meetings

While internal meetings may seem like a chore, meeting with customers is one of the best parts
of the job. It’s an opportunity to capture an unfiltered influx of feedback, ideas, and inspiration that
can help product managers power through the less-than-awesome aspects of the situation.
Meeting directly with customers is always preferable to relying on coworkers in sales or support
to funnel information back to the product team. This may not always be possible, but product
managers should seize these opportunities when they arise.
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While sales and support might bring back valuable tidbits, they’re conducting conversations with
customers through the lens of their particular jobs. The sales team is trying to gin up more
business; support is aiming to solve the customer’s problems and move on quickly.
As a product manager, the only goal is to understand the customer better so the product
experience can be improved and enhanced. These conversations can yield invaluable context for
using the product and where they’re encountering challenges. Product managers should also take
some worthwhile detours to explore other, ancillary opportunities where the product could
potentially be even more valuable or helpful to users.
Product management needs an established process for handling this feedback. Ideas worth
pursuing must be captured and tracked. Whether they’re eventually slotted into a release or
discarded, customers who provided suggestions should be informed either way. This follow-up
will encourage future feedback and it shows customers their input is appreciated.
And while it may not always be pleasant, it’s also great to have conversations with ex-customers.
Using “exit interviews” to collect churn feedback can shine a spotlight on key product flaws or
shortcomings that might cause other users to call it quits. It may also uncover disconnects in
product-market fit or pricing that is motivating some customers to abandon the product.

Updating Your Product Management Toolbox

Product managers have more options than ever when it comes to tools. They cover a wide range
of tasks and areas that product managers are responsible for.
These include solutions for tracking user behavior, including heat mapping and session replays.
Plus, there are surveying tools for gathering feedback. There are also a host of new options for
collaboration. It encompasses asynchronous messaging, voice chats, file sharing, and document
editing.
For demos, presentations, and onboarding, product managers can turn to web conferencing tools
that support screen sharing and recording. These can also be co-opted for low-budget usability
testing, as product managers can “ride-along” while users complete tasks using their products.
Quickly visualize concepts and workflows with wireframe tools and flowcharts.
Project management tools have also made a massive impact on how product managers keep
track of things. There’s no excuse to be managing your life and projects in a spreadsheet.
And, of course, there’s a pretty good tool for creating roadmaps we’re quite fond of. By relying on
some of these solutions, product managers can increase their efficiency, become better
collaborators, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Product managers shouldn’t be shy about asking for a tools budget; their time is just as valuable
as other contributors.

Organizational Options
Agile has been around for a while in the product development world. Agile Transformation is a
newer concept that brings the dynamic, nimble, responsive qualities of Agile to the entire
organization.
One permutation of this approach is the concept of product squads. Pioneered by Spotify, they
are autonomous teams with a group of developers and one product owner. Assigned to a
 18

particular functional area of the product, they’re able to attack the challenge freely. They can
rapidly deliver value to the market while building in-house expertise on the subject.
Product squads may or may not make sense for a particular company or product. But they’re a
great example of how product teams can reconfigure themselves to respond to opportunities more
dynamically. Freed up from bureaucratic oversight, ad hoc or permanent groups can take
ownership and drive rapid innovation.

Conclusion: Product Management Strategy

Ultimately, our answer to the “What is Product Management?” question is that the role is all about
strategy. Product managers develop the product’s strategy and persuasively communicate it.
Then tey ensure all decisions concerning development, marketing, etc., reflect and support the
stratey.

COMPILATION REFERENCES:
1. https://www.productplan.com/what-is-product-management/
2. https://www.aha.io/roadmapping/guide/product-management/what-is-the-role-of-a-
product-manager

ACTIVITIES / ASSESSMENTS:

All academic requirements needed for the computation of grading systems designed for
Online Instructional Materials will be on paper works (e.g. Terms papers, Essays, and
Manuscripts or Monographs)

1.Writing a Reaction Paper on:10%

 Product Management?
 What isn’t Product Management?
2.TECHNICAL FORMAT: (OPTIONAL)
 Bond Paper 8.5 x 11 (Short)
 Font: Arial
 Line Spacing: Single
 Paragraph Spacing: 1.5
 Margin: 1” (top, bottom, left, right)
 Minimum # of pages 5 or more each topic (use paraphrasing or personal
understanding)
 Use in – text citations, referencing (optional)
 PDF file format
 Due date: Nov 30, 2020 (subject to changes on University directives)
 My email address: felixramosjr.magdalo33@yahoo.com
 Cell phone # 0961 7941791 / 0995 3478025

3.WRITTEN OR MANUAL OUTPUT

 19

TOPIC 3 THE BOSTON CONSUTIG GROUP GROWTH MATRIX (BCG)

OVERVIEW:

BCG GROWTH MATRIX

A framework created by Boston Consulting Group to evaluate the strategic position of the
business brand portfolio and its potential. It classifies business portfolio into four categories based
on industry attractiveness (growth rate of that industry) and competitive position (relative market
share). These two dimensions reveal likely profitability of the business portfolio in terms of cash
needed to support that unit and cash generated by it. The general purpose of the analysis is to
help understand, which brands the firm should invest in and which ones should be divested.

COURSE OUTCOMES:
At the end of this course, successful student(s) would be able to have a meaningful, observable
and measurable knowledge, skills and / or dispositions relating to Product Management: The
following topics below will be the contents or focus of significant learnings:

 Relative market share.

 Market growth rate.
 Dogs.
 Cash cows.
 Stars.
 Question marks.
 Advantages and disadvantages
 Benefits of the matrix:

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Learning outcomes are statements that describe significant and essential learning that learners
have achieved, and can reliably demonstrate at the end of a course or program. In other words,
learning outcomes identify what the learner will know and be able to do by the end of a course or
program.

By using Bloom's taxonomy to identify verbs to describe participants’ learning. These are:
 20

 Knowledge/Remembering: define, list, recognize;

 Comprehension/Understanding: characterize, describe, explain, identify, locate,
recognize, sort;
 Application/Applying: choose, demonstrate, implement, perform;
 Analysis/Analyzing: analyze, categorize, compare, differentiate;
 Evaluation/Evaluating: assess, critique, evaluate, rank, rate;
 Synthesis/Creating: construct, design, formulate, organize, synthesize.

COURSE MATERIALS:

Relative market share.

One of the dimensions used to evaluate business portfolio is relative market share. Higher
corporate’s market share results in higher cash returns. This is because a firm that produces
more, benefits from higher economies of scale and experience curve, which results in higher
profits. Nonetheless, it is worth to note that some firms may experience the same benefits with
lower production outputs and lower market share.

Market growth rate

High market growth rate means higher earnings and sometimes profits but it also consumes lots
of cash, which is used as investment to stimulate further growth. Therefore, business units that
operate in rapid growth industries are cash users and are worth investing in only when they are
expected to grow or maintain market share in the future.

There are four quadrants into which firms’ brands are classified:

Dogs.

Dogs hold low market share compared to competitors and operate in a slowly growing market. In
general, they are not worth investing in because they generate low or negative cash returns. But
this is not always the truth. Some dogs may be profitable for long period of time they may provide
synergies for other brands or SBUs or simple act as a defense to counter competitors moves.
Therefore, it is always important to perform deeper analysis of each brand or SBU to make sure
they are not worth investing in or have to be divested.

Cash cows.

Cash cows are the most profitable brands and should be “milked” to provide as much cash as
possible. The cash gained from “cows” should be invested into stars to support their further
growth. According to growth-share matrix, corporates should not invest into cash cows to induce
growth but only to support them so they can maintain their current market share. Again, this is not
always the truth. Cash cows are usually large corporations or SBUs that are capable of innovating
new products or processes, which may become new stars. If there would be no support for cash
cows, they would not be capable of such innovations.
 21

Stars.

Stars operate in high growth industries and maintain high market share. Stars are both cash
generators and cash users. They are the primary units in which the company should invest its
money, because stars are expected to become cash cows and generate positive cash flows.
Yet, not all stars become cash flows. This is especially true in rapidly changing industries, where
new innovative products can soon be outcompeted by new technological advancements, so a
star instead of becoming a cash cow, becomes a dog.

Question marks.

Question marks are the brands that require much closer consideration. They hold low market
share in fast growing markets consuming large amount of cash and incurring losses. It has
potential to gain market share and become a star, which would later become cash cow.

Question marks do not always succeed and even after large amount of investments they
struggle to gain market share and eventually become dogs. Therefore, they require very close
consideration to decide if they are worth investing in or not.

BCG matrix quadrants are simplified versions of the reality and cannot be applied blindly. They
can help as general investment guidelines but should not change strategic thinking. Business
should rely on management judgement, business unit strengths and weaknesses and external
environment factors to make more reasonable investment decisions.

Advantages and disadvantages

Benefits of the matrix:

 Easy to perform;
 Helps to understand the strategic positions of business portfolio;
 It’s a good starting point for further more thorough analysis.

Growth-share analysis has been heavily criticized for its oversimplification and lack of useful
application. Following are the main limitations of the analysis:

 Business can only be classified to four quadrants. It can be confusing to classify an SBU
that falls right in the middle.
 It does not define what ‘market’ is. Businesses can be classified as cash cows, while they
are actually dogs, or vice versa.
 Does not include other external factors that may change the situation completely.
 Market share and industry growth are not the only factors of profitability. Besides, high
market share does not necessarily mean high profits.

It denies that synergies between different units exist. Dogs can be as important as cash cows to
businesses if it helps to achieve competitive advantage for the rest of the company.
 22

COMPILATION REFERENCES;

1. Wikipedia (2013). Growth-share matrix. Available

2. Costa, C. (2012). Evaluating Product Lines Using the BCG Matrix (VIDEO).
Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuuxs9gO8C0

ACTIVITIES / ASSESSMENTS:

All academic requirements needed for the computation of grading systems designed for
Online Instructional Materials will be on paper works (e.g. Terms papers, Essays, and
Manuscripts or Monographs)

1.Look for local companies with numerous products (e.g. Procter & Gamble, San Miguel
Corporation) qualify and explain using the BGC Growth Matrix 10%

2.TECHNICAL FORMAT: (OPTIONAL)

4. Bond Paper 8.5 x 11 (Short)
5. Font: Arial
6. Line Spacing: Single
7. Paragraph Spacing: 1.5
8. Margin: 1” (top, bottom, left, right)
9. Minimum # of pages 5 or more
10. Use in – text citations, referencing (optional)
11. PDF file format
12. Due date: Nov 30, 2020 (subject to changes on University directives)
13. My email address: felixramosjr.magdalo33@yahoo.com
14. Cell phone # 0961 7941791 / 0995 3478025

3. WRITTEN OR MANUAL OUTPUT

 23

TOPIC 4 THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

OVERVIEW:

The term product life cycle refers to the length of time a product is introduced to consumers into
the market until it's removed from the shelves. The life cycle of a product is broken into four
stages—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. This concept is used by management and by
marketing professionals as a factor in deciding when it is appropriate to increase advertising,
reduce prices, expand to new markets, or redesign packaging. The process of strategizing ways
to continuously support and maintain a product is called product life cycle management.

COURSE OUTCOMES:
At the end of this course, successful student(s) would be able to have a meaningful, observable
and measurable knowledge, skills and / or dispositions relating to Product Management: The
following topics below will be the contents or focus of significant learnings:

 Definition:
 How Product Life Cycles Work
 The Product Life cycle
 Examples of Product Life cycle
 The International Product Life Cycle Theory

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Learning outcomes are statements that describe significant and essential learning that learners
have achieved, and can reliably demonstrate at the end of a course or program. In other words,
learning outcomes identify what the learner will know and be able to do by the end of a course or
program.

By using Bloom's taxonomy to identify verbs to describe participants’ learning. These are:

 Knowledge/Remembering: define, list, recognize;

 Comprehension/Understanding: characterize, describe, explain, identify, locate,
recognize, sort;
 Application/Applying: choose, demonstrate, implement, perform;
 Analysis/Analyzing: analyze, categorize, compare, differentiate;
 Evaluation/Evaluating: assess, critique, evaluate, rank, rate;
 Synthesis/Creating: construct, design, formulate, organize, synthesize.

N.B.

 A product life cycle is the amount of time a product goes from being introduced into the
market until it's taken off the shelves.
 There are four stages in a product's life cycle—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.
 The concept of product life cycle helps inform business decision-making, from pricing and
promotion to expansion or cost-cutting.
 24

COURSE MATERIALS:

Definition:

Product life cycle (PLC) is the cycle through which every product goes through from introduction
to withdrawal or eventual demise.

How Product Life Cycles Work

Products, like people, have life cycles. A product begins with an idea, and within the confines of
modern business, it isn't likely to go further until it undergoes research and development (R&D)
and is found to be feasible and potentially profitable. At that point, the product is produced,
marketed, and rolled out.

As mentioned above, there are four generally accepted stages in the life cycle of a product—
introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

 Introduction: This phase generally includes a substantial investment in advertising and

a marketing campaign focused on making consumers aware of the product and its
benefits.
 Growth: If the product is successful, it then moves to the growth stage. This is
characterized by growing demand, an increase in production, and expansion in its
availability.
 Maturity: This is the most profitable stage, while the costs of producing and marketing
decline.
 Decline: A product takes on increased competition as other companies emulate its
success—sometimes with enhancements or lower prices. The product may lose market
share and begin its decline.

When a product is successfully introduced into the market, demand increases, therefore
increasing its popularity. These newer products end up pushing older ones out of the market,
effectively replacing them. Companies tend to curb their marketing efforts as a new product
grows. That's because the cost to produce and market the product drop. When demand for the
product wanes, it may be taken off the market completely.

While a new product needs to be explained, a mature one needs to be differentiated.

The stage of a product's life cycle impacts the way in which it is marketed to consumers. A new
product needs to be explained, while a mature product needs to be differentiated from its
competitors.

PROUCT LIFE CYCLE:

Special Considerations

Companies that have a good handle on all four stages can increase profitability and maximize
their returns. Those that aren't able to may experience an increase in their marketing and
production costs, ultimately leading to the limited shelf life for their product(s).
 25

Back in 1965, Theodore Levitt, a marketing professor, wrote in the Harvard Business Review that
the innovator is the one with the most to lose because so many truly new products fail at the first
phase of their life cycle—the introductory stage. The failure comes only after the investment of
substantial money and time into research, development, and production. And that fact, he wrote,
prevents many companies from even trying anything really new. Instead, he said, they wait for
someone else to succeed and then clone the success.

Examples of Product Life Cycles

Many brands that were American icons have dwindled and died. Better management of product
life cycles might have saved some of them, or perhaps their time had just come. Some examples:

 Oldsmobile began producing cars in 1897 but the brand was killed off in 2004. Its gas-
guzzling muscle-car image lost its appeal, General Motors decided.
 Woolworth's had a store in just about every small town and city in America until it shuttered
its stores in 1997. It was the era of Walmart and other big-box stores.
 Border's bookstore chain closed down in 2011. It couldn't survive the internet age.

To cite an established and still-thriving industry, television program distribution has related
products in all stages of the product life cycle. As of 2019, flat-screen TVs are in the mature phase,
programming-on-demand is in the growth stage, DVDs are in decline, and the videocassette is
extinct.

Many of the most successful products on earth are suspended in the mature stage for as long as
possible, undergoing minor updates and redesigns to keep them differentiated. Examples
include Apple computers and iPhones, Ford's best-selling trucks, and Starbucks' coffee—all of
which undergo minor changes accompanied by marketing efforts—are designed to keep them
feeling unique and special in the eyes of consumers.

THE INTERNATIONAL PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE THEORY

The International Product Life Cycle Theory was authored by Raymond Vernon in the 1960s to
explain the cycle that products go through when exposed to an international market. The cycle
describes how a product matures and declines as a result of internationalization. There are
three stages contained within the theory.

New Product Introduction

The cycle always begins with the introduction of a new product. In this stage a corporation in a
developed country will innovate a new product. The market for this product will be small and
sales will be relatively low as a result. Vernon deduced that innovative products are more likely
to be created in a developed nation because the buoyant economy means that people have
more disposable income to use on new products.

To offset the impact of low sales, corporations will keep the manufacture of the product local,
so that as process issues arise or a need to modify the product in its infancy stage presents
itself, changes can be implemented without too much risk and without wasting time.
 26

As sales increase, corporations may start to export the product out to other developed nations
to increase sales and revenue. It’s a straightforward step towards the internationalization of a
product because the appetites of people within developed nations tends to be quite similar.

The Maturity Stage

At this point, when the product has firmly established demand in developed countries, the
manufacturer of the product will need to consider opening up production plants locally in each
developed country to meet the demand. As the product is being produced locally, labor costs
and export and costs will decrease thereby reducing the unit cost and increasing revenue.
Product development can still occur at this point as there is still room to adapt and modify the
product if needed. Appetites for the product in developed nations will continue to increase in
this stage.

Although the unit costs have decreased due to the decision to produce the product locally, the
manufacture of the product will still require a highly skilled labor force. Local competition to offer
alternatives start to form. The increased product exposure begins to reach the countries that
have a less developed economy, and demand from these nations start to grow.

Product Standardization and Streamlining of Manufacturing

Exports to nations with a less developed economy begin in earnest. Competitive product offers
saturate the market which means that the original purveyor of the product loses their competitive
edge on the basis of innovation. In response to this, rather than continuing to add new features
to the product, the corporation focuses on driving down the cost of the process to manufacture
the product. They do this by moving production to nations where the average income is much
lower and standardizing and streamlining the manufacturing methods needed to make the
product.

The local workforce in lower income nations are then exposed to the technology and methods
to make the product and competitors begin to rise as they did in developed nations previously.
Meanwhile, demand in the original nation where the product came from begins to decline and
eventually dwindles as a new product grabs the attention of the people. The market for the
product is now completely saturated and the multinational corporation leaves the manufacture
of the product in low income countries and instead, focuses its attention on new product
development as it bows gracefully out of the market.

What is left of the market share is divvied up between predominantly foreign competitors and
people in the original country who want the product at this point, will most likely buy an imported
version of the product from a nation where the incomes are lower. Then the cycle begins again.

COMPILATION REFRENCES:

1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/product-life-
cycle.asp#:~:text=A%20product%20life%20cycle%20is,growth%2C%20maturity%2C%2
0and%20decline.&text=Newer%2C%20more%20successful%20products%20push%20o
lder%20ones%20out%20of%20the%20market.
2. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/three-stages-international-product-life-cycle-theory-
19364.html
 27

ACTIVITIES / ASSESSMENTS:

All academic requirements needed for the computation of grading systems designed for
Online Instructional Materials will be on paper works (e.g. Terms papers, Essays, and
Manuscripts or Monographs)

1.Submission of Term Papers focusing on the following topics: 20%

TOPIC 1 WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

TOPIC 2 THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PRODUT MANAGEMENT
TOPIC 3.THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP GROWTH MATRIX

TOPIC 4 THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

2.TECHNICAL FORMAT: (OPTIONAL)

15. Bond Paper 8.5 x 11 (Short)
16. Font: Arial
17. Line Spacing: Single
18. Paragraph Spacing: 1.5
19. Margin: 1” (top, bottom, left, right)
20. Minimum # of pages 5 or more each topic
21. Use in – text citations, referencing (optional)
22. PDF file format
23. Due date: Nov 30, 2020 (subject to changes on University directives)
24. My email address: felixramosjr.magdalo33@yahoo.com
25. Cell phone # 0961 7941791 / 0995 3478025

3. WRITTEN OR MANUAL OUTPUT

 28

TOPIC 5 THE 7 Ps OF MARKETING: A KEY CONCEPT IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

OVERVIEW:

Once you've developed your marketing strategy, there is a "Seven P Formula" you should use to
continually evaluate and reevaluate your business activities. These seven are: product, price,
promotion, place, packaging, positioning and people. As products, markets, customers and needs
change rapidly, you must continually revisit these seven Ps to make sure you're on track and
achieving the maximum results possible for you in today's marketplace.

COURSE OUTCOMES:
At the end of this course, successful student(s) would be able to have a meaningful, observable
and measurable knowledge, skills and / or dispositions relating to Product Management: The
following topics below will be the contents or focus of significant learnings:

 The 7 Ps of Marketing
 The Marketing Theories: From 4 Ps to 7Ps
 The Marketing Mix
 The extended 7 Ps:
 Is there an 8th P?

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Learning outcomes are statements that describe significant and essential learning that learners
have achieved, and can reliably demonstrate at the end of a course or program. In other words,
learning outcomes identify what the learner will know and be able to do by the end of a course or
program.

By using Bloom's taxonomy to identify verbs to describe participants’ learning. These are:

 Knowledge/Remembering: define, list, recognize;

 Comprehension/Understanding: characterize, describe, explain, identify, locate,
recognize, sort;
 Application/Applying: choose, demonstrate, implement, perform;
 Analysis/Analyzing: analyze, categorize, compare, differentiate;
 Evaluation/Evaluating: assess, critique, evaluate, rank, rate;
 Synthesis/Creating: construct, design, formulate, organize, synthesize.

COURSE MATERIALS;

THE 7 Ps OF MARKETING:

Product

To begin with, develop the habit of looking at your product as though you were an outside
marketing consultant brought in to help your company decide whether or not it's in the right
business at this time. Ask critical questions such as, "Is your current product or service, or mix of
products and services, appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today?"
 29

Whenever you're having difficulty selling as much of your products or services as you'd like, you
need to develop the habit of assessing your business honestly and asking, "Are these the right
products or services for our customers today?"

Is there any product or service you're offering today that, knowing what you now know, you would
not bring out again today? Compared to your competitors, is your product or service superior in
some significant way to anything else available? If so, what is it? If not, could you develop an area
of superiority? Should you be offering this product or service at all in the current marketplace?

Prices

The second P in the formula is price. Develop the habit of continually examining and reexamining
the prices of the products and services you sell to make sure they're still appropriate to the realities
of the current market. Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be
appropriate to raise your prices. Many companies have found that the profitability of certain
products or services doesn't justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing them.
By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their customers, but the remaining
percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you?

Sometimes you need to change your terms and conditions of sale. Sometimes, by spreading your
price over a series of months or years, you can sell far more than you are today, and the interest
you can charge will more than make up for the delay in cash receipts. Sometimes you can
combine products and services together with special offers and special promotions. Sometimes
you can include free additional items that cost you very little to produce but make your prices
appear far more attractive to your customers.

In business, as in nature, whenever you experience resistance or frustration in any part of your
sales or marketing plan, be open to revisiting that area. Be open to the possibility that your current
pricing structure is not ideal for the current market. Be open to the need to revise your prices, if
necessary, to remain competitive, to survive and thrive in a fast-changing marketplace.

Promotion

The third habit in marketing and sales is to think in terms of promotion all the time. Promotion
includes all the ways you tell your customers about your products or services and how you then
market and sell to them.

Small changes in the way you promote and sell your products can lead to dramatic changes in
your results. Even small changes in your advertising can lead immediately to higher sales.
Experienced copywriters can often increase the response rate from advertising by 500 percent
by simply changing the headline on an advertisement.

Large and small companies in every industry continually experiment with different ways of
advertising, promoting, and selling their products and services. And here is the rule: Whatever
method of marketing and sales you're using today will, sooner or later, stop working. Sometimes
it will stop working for reasons you know, and sometimes it will be for reasons you don't know. In
either case, your methods of marketing and sales will eventually stop working, and you'll have to
develop new sales, marketing and advertising approaches, offerings, and strategies.
 30

Place

The fourth P in the marketing mix is the place where your product or service is actually sold.
Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact location where the customer meets
the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.

You can sell your product in many different places. Some companies use direct selling, sending
their salespeople out to personally meet and talk with the prospect. Some sell by telemarketing.
Some sell through catalogs or mail order. Some sell at trade shows or in retail establishments.
Some sell in joint ventures with other similar products or services. Some companies use
manufacturers' representatives or distributors. Many companies use a combination of one or more
of these methods.

In each case, the entrepreneur must make the right choice about the very best location or place
for the customer to receive essential buying information on the product or service needed to make
a buying decision. What is yours? In what way should you change it? Where else could you offer
your products or services?

Packaging

The fifth element in the marketing mix is the packaging. Develop the habit of standing back and
looking at every visual element in the packaging of your product or service through the eyes of a
critical prospect. Remember, people form their first impression about you within the first 30
seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging
or external appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different reactions
from your customers.

With regard to the packaging of your company, your product or service, you should think in terms
of everything that the customer sees from the first moment of contact with your company all the
way through the purchasing process.

Packaging refers to the way your product or service appears from the outside. Packaging also
refers to your people and how they dress and groom. It refers to your offices, your waiting rooms,
your brochures, your correspondence and every single visual element about your company.
Everything counts. Everything helps or hurts. Everything affects your customer's confidence about
dealing with you.

When IBM started under the guidance of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., he very early concluded that
fully 99 percent of the visual contact a customer would have with his company, at least initially,
would be represented by IBM salespeople. Because IBM was selling relatively sophisticated high-
tech equipment, Watson knew customers would have to have a high level of confidence in the
credibility of the salesperson. He therefore instituted a dress and grooming code that became an
inflexible set of rules and regulations within IBM.

As a result, every salesperson was required to look like a professional in every respect. Every
element of their clothing-including dark suits, dark ties, white shirts, conservative hairstyles,
shined shoes, clean fingernails-and every other feature gave off the message of professionalism
and competence. One of the highest compliments a person could receive was, "You look like
someone from IBM."
 31

Positioning

The next P is positioning. You should develop the habit of thinking continually about how you are
positioned in the hearts and minds of your customers. How do people think and talk about you
when you're not present? How do people think and talk about your company? What positioning
do you have in your market, in terms of the specific words people use when they describe you
and your offerings to others?

In the famous book by Al Reis and Jack Trout, Positioning, the authors point out that how you are
seen and thought about by your customers is the critical determinant of your success in a
competitive marketplace. Attribution theory says that most customers think of you in terms of a
single attribute, either positive or negative. Sometimes it's "service." Sometimes it's "excellence."
Sometimes it's "quality engineering," as with Mercedes Benz. Sometimes it's "the ultimate driving
machine," as with BMW. In every case, how deeply entrenched that attribute is in the minds of
your customers and prospective customers determines how readily they'll buy your product or
service and how much they'll pay.

Develop the habit of thinking about how you could improve your positioning. Begin by determining
the position you'd like to have. If you could create the ideal impression in the hearts and minds of
your customers, what would it be? What would you have to do in every customer interaction to
get your customers to think and talk about in that specific way? What changes do you need to
make in the way interact with customers today in order to be seen as the very best choice for your
customers of tomorrow?

People

The final P of the marketing mix is people. Develop the habit of thinking in terms of the people
inside and outside of your business who are responsible for every element of your
sales, marketing strategies, and activities.

It's amazing how many entrepreneurs and businesspeople will work extremely hard to think
through every element of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and then pay little
attention to the fact that every single decision and policy has to be carried out by a specific person,
in a specific way. Your ability to select, recruit, hire and retain the proper people, with the skills
and abilities to do the job you need to have done, is more important than everything else put
together.

In his best-selling book, Good to Great, Jim Collins discovered the most important factor applied
by the best companies was that they first of all "got the right people on the bus, and the wrong
people off the bus." Once these companies had hired the right people, the second step was to
"get the right people in the right seats on the bus."

To be successful in business, you must develop the habit of thinking in terms of exactly who is
going to carry out each task and responsibility. In many cases, it's not possible to move forward
until you can attract and put the right person into the right position. Many of the best business
plans ever developed sit on shelves today because the [people who created them] could not find
the key people who could execute those plans.
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MARKETING THEORIES – THE MARKETING MIX – FROM 4 PS TO 7 PS

Marketing is a continually evolving discipline and as such can be one that companies find
themselves left very much behind the competition if they stand still for too long. One example of
this evolution has been the fundamental changes to the basic Marketing mix. Where once there
were 4 Ps to explain the mix, nowadays it is more commonly accepted that a more developed 7
Ps adds a much needed additional layer of depth to the Marketing Mix with some theorists going
even going further.
Before we get carried away though what is the Marketing Mix and what is the original 4 Ps
principle?

THE MARKETING MIX

Simply put the Marketing Mix is a tool used by businesses and Marketers to help determine a
product or brands offering. The 4 Ps have been associated with the Marketing Mix since their
creation by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960 (You can see why there may have been some need to
update the theory).

The Marketing Mix 4 Ps:

 Product - The Product should fit the task consumers want it for, it should work and it should
be what the consumers are expecting to get.
 Place – The product should be available from where your target consumer finds it easiest to
shop. This may be High Street, Mail Order or the more current option via e-commerce or an
online shop.
 Price – The Product should always be seen as representing good value for money. This does
not necessarily mean it should be the cheapest available; one of the main tenets of the
marketing concept is that customers are usually happy to pay a little more for something that
works really well for them.
 Promotion – Advertising, PR, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling and, in more recent times,
Social Media are all key communication tools for an organization. These tools should be used
to put across the organization’s message to the correct audiences in the manner they would
most like to hear, whether it be informative or appealing to their emotions.
In the late 70’s it was widely acknowledged by Marketers that the Marketing Mix should be
updated. This led to the creation of the Extended Marketing Mix in 1981 by Booms & Bitner
which added 3 new elements to the 4 Ps Principle. This now allowed the extended Marketing
Mix to include products that are services and not just physical things.

The extended 7 Ps:

 People – All companies are reliant on the people who run them from front line Sales staff to
the Managing Director. Having the right people is essential because they are as much a part
of your business offering as the products/services you are offering.
 Processes –The delivery of your service is usually done with the customer present so how
the service is delivered is once again part of what the consumer is paying for.
 Physical Evidence – Almost all services include some physical elements even if the bulk of
what the consumer is paying for is intangible. For example a hair salon would provide their
client with a completed hairdo and an insurance company would give their customers some
form of printed material. Even if the material is not physically printed (in the case of PDFs)
they are still receiving a “physical product” by this definition.
 33

Though in place since the 1980’s the 7 Ps are still widely taught due to their fundamental logic
being sound in the marketing environment and marketers abilities to adapt the Marketing Mix to
include changes in communications such as social media, updates in the places which you can
sell a product/service or customers expectations in a constantly changing commercial
environment.

Is there an 8th P?

In some spheres of thinking, there are 8 Ps in the Marketing Mix. The final P is Productivity and
Quality. This came from the old Services Marketing Mix and is folded in to the Extended Marketing
Mix by some marketers so what does it mean?

The 8th P of the Marketing Mix:

Productivity & Quality - This P asks “is what you’re offering your customer a good deal?” This
is less about you as a business improving your own productivity for cost management, and more
about how your company passes this onto its customers.

Even after 31 years (or 54 in the case of the original P’s) the Marketing Mix is still very much
applicable to a marketer’s day to day work. A good marketer will learn to adapt the theory to fit
with not only modern times but their individual business model.

COMPILATION REFERENCES;

1. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/70824#:~:text=Once%20you've%20developed%20your,
%2C%20packaging%2C%20positioning%20and%20people.
2. https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs-and-advice/marketing-theories---the-marketing-
mix---from-4-p-s-to-7-p-s
3. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/product-life-cycle
ACTIVITIES / ASSESSMENTS:

All academic requirements needed for the computation of grading systems designed for
Online Instructional Materials will be on paper works (e.g. Terms papers, Essays, and
Manuscripts or Monographs)

1.Final Academic Requirements (Submissions of Manuscripts or Monographs)

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: “A MANUSCRIPT” 40%

2.TECHNICAL FORMAT: (OPTIONAL)
26. Bond Paper 8.5 x 11 (Short)
27. Font: Arial
28. Line Spacing: Single
29. Paragraph Spacing: 1.5
30. Margin: 1” (top, bottom, left, right)
31. Minimum # of pages 80 or more
32. Use in – text citations, referencing (optional)
33. PDF file format
34. Due date: Nov 30, 2020 (subject to changes on University directives)
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35. My email address: felixramosjr.magdalo33@yahoo.com

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3. WRITTEN OR MANUAL OUTPUT