CHAPTER 11: DEVELOPING AND MANAGING PRODUCTS

DEVELOPING AND MANAGING PRODUCTS

To be successful and to resist the market for a long time a company needs to constantly meet the consumer's demands. It needs to constantly come up with new products to satisfy its costumers. 

There are different types of "new" products that a company can place in to the market. There are the new-to-the-world products, that are innovative product never seen by the public before. There are new product lines, that may not be completely new to the public but are a new component to a particular line of products. There may be addition or renovations to the product line, which means that there isn't necessarily an actual new product but there are modifications to the existing products. 

Many businesses incorporate all of these components very often, especially high-tech companies that have to do with communication and transportation, such as twitter, apple, Nissan etc. This companies decide what kind of products to make and when to release them based on competition and the changes in the lives of their buyers. And these indicators for new products are not limited to high-tech companies only. They apply to apparel retailer too, such as Zara.

As a fashion imitator Zara doesn't have to worry about setting new trend or trying to figure them out. However, it does need to change the variety of its product lines in order to keep its costumers and to expand its business. One of the strategies that Zara has followed is lowered priced products. Zara offers products similar to the products of famous designer, for a much lower price. Also it, sometimes, adds new products to the existing lines and revises some of the old products to give them a slightly new, different appearance to fit the new trends. So far these strategies have proven to be successful since Zara has survive the market for many years and seems to be constantly growing. 

CHAPTER 18: SOCIAL MEDIA AND MARKETING

SOCIAL MEDIA AND MARKETING

One of the most important asset that many companies have to promote their business is marketing. Traditionally marketing is done through T.V. adds, newspaper adds, posters etc. Lately, marketing is done through social media too. Companies can reach to prospective consumers through mobile marketing, e-mail marketing or online adds etc. This type of marketing has become very successful as social media is very popular among different generations nowadays. However, not every business chose to use social media for marketing, or even marketing at all.

Zara is one of these companies that chose not to use marketing. This company believes that there is better use of their money than marketing. Zara is a fashion imitator, which means that the style of its products is already in style. Unlike the apparel retailers that set the trends, Zara has affordable styles and approximately 700 convenient stores throughout the world. Also, Zara uses the money saved from not advertising to release a new line every two weeks. All of these combined create many loyal consumers, proving that Zara's strategy is working.  

CHAPTER 10: PRODUCTS CONCEPTS

PRODUCT CONCEPTS

Before worrying about  strategies to expand the business, a company must first have abundant  products to sell. When the company has many products available, it reaches more consumers and it begins to orient the managers towards efficient business moves. It allows them to decide which type of goods and services should be produced and which ones should not, and it provides the managers with possible marketing strategies such as advertising, distribution etc. that will guide them into making their business successful. 

The marketing strategies that a company chooses to follow depends on the type of products that that company provides. For example the marketing strategies for industrial products and consumer goods are quite different. The consumer products are much more versatile and appeal to a larger number of people, thus the magnetizing strategies are more numerous.

Consumer goods are classified based on the need of the consumers for them. There are convenience products, which are usually inexpensive and used for basic needs and services. There are shopping products, which are not as inexpensive and common in need as the convenience products. There are many more categories that classify products based on their price and usage. Apparel retail companies usually have shopping products, which are classified in other subcategories within themselves based upon the different marketing strategies used to sell them.

Zara is an example of apparel retail companies that provides shopping goods. The products of Zara are not as basic and inexpensive as convenience products but they are not as particular and expensive as specialty products because Zara is a fashion imitator. Being a vertically integrated business Zara saves a lot of time and money on producing its products. This allows Zara to sell its clothes  in product lines, a group of related items-- approximately every two weeks  there is a new clothing line in every Zara store. Lately, Zara began to produce other items than clothes such as accessories, cosmetic products and home products. All of these products are sold in what is called a  product mix. Usually components of the product mix would require different marketing strategies, but this is not the case of this company. Zara uses the same strategy for all of them: the products are versatile available in every worldwide Zara store at an affordable price--so far it has resulted successful. 

                          

        

CHAPTER 17: PERSONAL SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT

PERSONAL SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT

Personal selling has been a popular practice among certain kinds of businesses since a long time ago. Companies that launch new services of goods frequently, usually need to use personal selling to make the new product more appealing to the costumer. Personal selling is designed to provide the prospective costumer with reasonable exudes to purchase the product. To achieve this goal, personal consultants sometimes have to show a demonstration of the product or link the product to the lifestyle of the costumer, etc. All of these strategies and more, often provide the company with new and loyal costumers because the company has created a sense of credibility and familiarity. 

However, this kind of service is not needed in every type of businesses. It is necessary for companies that launch luxurious and innovative products, such as private jets, yachts or new technologies, for which the costumer needs a proper demonstration and justification. For other companies that sell simple, everyday products, such as clothes and food, personal selling is not crucial to the business' success. 

Zara is one of the world's largest apparel retailers. It is said to be a "fashion imitator" because rather than attempting to create new fashion trends, it focuses on manufacturing versatile quotidian products based on the already established trends. This strategy allows Zara to have costumers who already know what they want and do not need personal selling to invent reasons for the products purchase.