The Marketing Questions; How Do Corporations develpe their Products

It is no mystery that products are one the most important factors that define the identity of any company. Products can also show how the company is positioning in market according to its competitor. Consequently, it is of great importance to develop a product that is unique in order to help the company be distinguished in the market and also be competitive enough to survive in the long run.

The technological advances in the science world have been a great help for companies to develop new products. In fact, R&D in a company like P&G is a factor that makes them to be the giant power in the health and beauty market accounting for $2 billion dollars annually according to forbes magazine.

 

In addition, P&G started “connect and develop” program to engage with 100 international companies as partners in order to find new ways of developing products.

However, it is important for a company to know what kind of customers are they targeting in the sense that if their new product is going to be adapted by the consumers right away or is it going to go down the chain of diffusion of innovation. For a company like apple, this has been the case that during the early days of new macbook pro people who were willing to try a new pc platform started to use it despite its lack of compatibility with different software programs.

 

Essentially, due to the great services that apple provided to its customers through mac stores, fixing the compatibility of new macbooks with software programs and great marketing campaigns, a large portion of consumers gradually shifted towards apple to the point that the apple had the largest amount of cash right after federal reserve due to its product strength and great services. Therefore, products along with the company’s services, marketing and creating value propositions for the customers can make a organization unique enough to survive in the firece competition of today’s global market.

Innovation: The Significant Marketing Element

What is the key factor of the big companies like P&G, Coca Cola and etc that makes them to be successful over decades? The key answer would be significant innovation. In today’s world the market competition is fierce and companies should have a unique aspect in order to survive. Consequently, investing in R&D would give any company a great edge to always provide customers products that they value.

 

Proctor & Gamble is a great instance of a company that values innovation in a massive extent. According to Ken Favaro “[P & G invests US$2 billion in R&D annually, 50 percent more than its largest peer [Johnson and Johnson]. The article can be accessed here.

This innovation strategy has translated into the company’s core values as well as its shareholders’ trust. In fact, this one of P & G’s mottoes on their website is “P&G’s clear priority is value creation for consumers and shareholders.” However, strategy innovation is not just limited in R & D, but in every aspect of the business. This includes, sales, distribution, business system and model. It is clear that all these aspects are translated in to marketing strategies of such companies that leads to the correlation of marketing and innovation, which is an undeniable fact.

 

Four Seasons is another company that values innovation in a luxurious way. In an interview, Allen Smith, the CEO of the Four Seasons Resorts and Hotels talks about the importance of innovation for their business in toady’s’ competitive market. One of FS’s campaigns in Macao was “Walk on Water” that provided a luxurious and innovative platform for meetings, incentives, conferences and events. As mentioned in this article,  Julius Santos, the director of marketing of Four Seasons Macao, says “Continuous innovation is the key to success, that is the thinking behind Walk on Water”. As a result, event though product consistency and stability can help a business maintain its existence in the market, product innovation strategy can open new doors to the business and give it an advantageous edge in the competition if it is managed with precision as done by great companies like Four Seasons and P & G.

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