B.S Marketing : Product

The BCG matrix (aka B.C.G. analysis, BCG-matrix, Boston Box, Boston Matrix, Boston Consulting Group analysis) is a chart that had been created by Bruce Henderson for the Boston Consulting Group in 1968 to help corporations with analyzing their business units or product lines. This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis.

A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol, intended to identify a product or producer. A protected brand name is called a proprietary name.

The product life cycle goes through multiple phases, involves many professional disciplines, and requires many skills, tools and processes. Product life cycle (PLC) has to do with the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures; whereas product life cycle management (PLM) has more to do with managing descriptions and properties of a product through its development and useful life, mainly from a business/engineering point of view. To say that a product has a life cycle is to assert four things:

that products have a limited life,

product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different challenges, opportunities, and problems to the seller,

profits rise and fall at different stages of product life cycle, and

products require different marketing, financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in each life cycle stage.

Product - A tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible products are often service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based products like cellphone load and credits. Typical examples of a mass produced tangible object are the motor car and the disposable razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system.

Price – The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.

A market map defines the distribution and value chain between supplier and final user, which takes into account the various buying mechanisms found in a market, including the part played by 'influencers'. (McDonald)

Market maps help focus attention on key decision makers within a market, and identify key target market segments within a market segmentation project. Market channels and the key players within channels can be easily identified with the help of a graphic presentation of a market.

A market map can help deliver key customer and consumer insights, and ensures full awareness of the the total market place.

exposing consumers to a new product, in final or prototype form, so that they might compare it to their usual brand and rate it; the results of product testing will indicate to the company whether further evaluation of the product in test markets is desirable.

1. Manufacturing: Systematic analysis that identifies and selects best value alternatives for designs, materials, processes, and systems. It proceeds by repeatedly asking "can the cost of this item or step be reduced or eliminated, without diminishing the effectiveness, required quality, or customer satisfaction?" Also called value engineering, its objectives are to distinguish between the incurred costs (actual use of resources) and the costs inherent (locked in) in a particular design (and which determine the incurring costs), and to minimize the locked-in costs.

2. Purchasing: Examination of each procurement item to ascertain its total cost of acquisition, maintenance, and usage over its useful life and, wherever feasible, to replace it with a more cost effective substitute. Also called value-in-use analysis.

Place – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.

Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements - advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations (see Product above).