Product Decisions: The product is the final product that the

organisation manufactures to earn profit by selling it. In the era of cutthroat competition, it
becomes necessary that the product should be designed and sold in a prudent manner in order to
satisfy both the customers and the financial leaves of the organisation.

What is a Product?
A product can be defined as a collection of physical, service and symbolic attributes which yield
satisfaction or benefits to a user or buyer.

According to W. Alderson, “A Product is a set of tangible and intangible attributes, including

packaging, colour, price, manufacturer’s and retailer’s services, which the buyer may accept as
offering the satisfaction of wants or needs.”

According to Philip Kotler, “a product can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition and
consumption that might satisfy a need or want. It includes physical objects, services, persons,
places, organisations and ideas.

Characteristics of Product
Some of the important characteristics of the product are given below:

 A product is a set of Tangible and intangible attributes

 Product includes colour, price, packaging and branding
 Product is a group of utilities
 The product is designed and presented to satisfy some specific consumer need.

What are Product Decisions?

Marketing mix describes how businesses use and manipulate the 4Ps to market
their products. Businesses employ different strategies when marketing products
compared to services. As a physical product, marketers need to make several
decisions. These decisions are called product decisions. These include decisions
related to packaging, labelling and branding involved in marketing the overall
product.

Type of Product Decisions

There are different decisions related to the product. These include four major
decisions- Product Design Decisions, Production decisions, When and Where to
Launch Decisions and Product Mix And Product Line.

1. Product Design Decisions

Product design decisions are related to the design of the products. The design of
the product plays a very important role in the marketing process. If the design is as
per the needs of the customers and compatible to be handled then this enhances the
chances of a competitive advantage over the other teachers in the market.

2. Production Decisions
These decisions are related to the production aspect of the product. They involve
decisions like what will be the manufacturing process of the product, batch flow
line what kind of technology to be used and product quality etc.

3. Product Line Decisions

Product line decisions refer to decisions relating to the addition or deletion of
product(s) from existing product lines. These include decisions like

 Product line length decision: These decisions are related to the length of the
product line. This involves decisions like adding a new product or
eliminating and profitable product in the product line.
 Product line stretching decision: This decision is related to lengthening a
firm’s product line beyond its current line by adding new products.
 Product line modernisation decision: A strategy in which items in a product
line are modified to suit modern styling and tastes and re-launched
 Product line featuring decision: these decisions include highlighting specific
products from the existing product line. Producers feature promotional
models at the low end of the line to serve as “traffic builders.”
4. Product Mix Decisions
“A product mix (also called product assortment) is the set of all product lines and
items that a particular seller offers for sale to buyers”.

According to AMA (American Marketing Association),” product mix is the

composite of products offered for sale by a firm or a business unit”.

From concept to market: A step-by-

step to the new product
development process
New product development refers to the complete process of bringing a new product
to market. This can apply to developing an entirely new product, improving an
 existing one to keep it attractive and competitive, or introducing an old product to a
new market.
The emergence of NPD is driven by the need of companies to maintain a
competitive advantage in the market by introducing new products or innovating
existing ones. While regular product development refers to building a product that
already has a proof of concept, new product development focuses on developing an
entirely new idea—from idea generation to development to launch.
NDP helps you:
 Stay updated with new technology and trends
 Beat the competition with creative solutions
 Offer more products and find new streams of revenue
 Adapt to changing customer needs
 Use resources more efficiently
 Improve your brand's image
 Grow your business and ensure sustainability

Types of new product development: When do you need an

NPD process?
NPD typically falls into one of these three types:
1. New-to-the-world products
These are innovative products that have never been designed and developed before.
These products have the capacity to create entirely new markets. Think of the first
personal computers, for example, which brought computing into homes; or the initial
release of smartphones, which changed how we communicate and access information.
These products often come with high risks but also the potential for high rewards.
2. New-to-the-firm products
These products already exist in the market but are new to the company. Like when a
male grooming company, initially focused on razors and beard care, expanded into
new personal care products—like body wash and shampoo. This move doesn’t
redefine the business, but it broadens the business offerings and can reach a wider
audience.
3. Additions to existing product lines
This involves introducing new versions or variations of existing products. For
example:
Software updates that introduce new features, improved security, bug fixes, and user
interface improvements
Revisions to an existing product's design, materials, or process to improve its
functionality, durability, or cost-effectiveness
Upgrades or replacements of specific components or subsystems within a larger
product to improve its overall capabilities or performance
The goal is to keep the existing product relevant, competitive, and aligned with
evolving customer needs and market trends—rather than introducing an entirely new
product line. These additions help keep the product line fresh and appealing to
customers, offering them more choices and meeting diverse needs.

The 7 stages of new product development: A step-by-step process:

1. Idea generation
Idea generation involves brainstorming for new product ideas or ways to improve an
existing product. During product discovery, companies examine market trends,
conduct product research, and dig deep into users' wants and needs to identify a
problem and propose innovative solutions.
A SWOT Analysis is a framework for evaluating your product’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It can be a very effective way to identify the
problematic areas of your product and understand where the greatest opportunities lie.
There are two primary sources of product development ideation. Internal ideas come
from different areas within the company—such as Marketing, Customer Support, the
Sales team, or the Engineering department. External ideas come from outside sources,
such as studying your competitors and, most importantly, feedback from your target
audience.
Some methods you can use are:
 Conducting market and product analysis
 Working with product marketing and sales to check if your product's value is being
positioned correctly
 Collecting customer feedback with user interviews, focus groups, UX surveys,
and product analytics
 Running user tests to see how people are using your product and identify gaps and
room for improvement
Ultimately, the goal of the idea generation stage is to come up with as many ideas as
possible while focusing on delivering value to your customers.
2. Idea screening
This second step of new product development revolves around screening all your
generated ideas and picking only the ones with the highest chance of success.
Deciding which ideas to pursue and discard depends on many factors, including the
expected benefits to your consumers, product improvements most needed, technical
feasibility, or marketing potential.
The idea screening stage is best carried out within the company. Experts from
different teams can help you check aspects such as the technical requirements,
resources needed, and marketability of your idea.

3. Concept development and testing

All ideas passing the screening stage are developed into concepts. A product concept
is a detailed description or blueprint of your idea. It should indicate the target market
for your product, the features and benefits of your solution that may appeal to your
customers, and the proposed price for the product. A concept should also contain the
estimated cost of designing, developing, and launching the product.
Developing alternative product concepts will help you determine how attractive each
concept is to customers and select the one with the highest value.
Once you’ve developed your concepts, test each of them with a select group of
consumers. Concept testing is a great way to validate product ideas with users before
investing time and resources into building them.
Concepts are also often used for market validation. Before committing to developing a
new product, share your concept with your prospective buyers to collect insights and
gauge how viable the product idea would be in the target market.
4. Marketing strategy and business analysis
Now that you’ve selected the concept, it’s time to put together an initial marketing
strategy to introduce the product to the market and analyze the value of your solution
from a business perspective.
 The marketing strategy serves to guide the positioning, pricing, and promotion of
your new product. Once the marketing strategy is planned, product management can
evaluate the business attractiveness of the product idea.
 The business analysis comprises a review of the sales forecasts, expected costs, and
profit projections. If they satisfy the company’s objectives, the product can move to
the product development stage.
5. Product development
The product development stage consists of developing the product concept into a
finished, marketable product. Your product development process and the stages you’ll
go through will depend on your company’s preference for development, whether
it’s agile product development, waterfall, or another viable alternative.
This stage usually involves creating the prototype and testing it with users to see how
they interact with it and collect feedback. Prototype testing allows product teams to
validate design decisions and uncover any flaws or usability issues before handing the
designs to the development team.
6. Test marketing
test marketing involves releasing the finished product to a sample market to evaluate
its performance under the predetermined marketing strategy.
There are two testing methods you can employ:
 Alpha testing is software testing used to identify bugs before releasing the product to
the public
 Beta testing is an opportunity for actual users to use the product and give their
feedback about it
The goal of the test marketing stage is to validate the entire concept behind the new
product and get ready to launch the product.
7. Product launch
At this point, you’re ready to introduce your new product to the market. Ensure your
Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support teams are in place to guarantee a
successful launch and monitor its performance.
Remember, product launch is a critical part of the broader commercialization stage.
While the product launch focuses on the initial introduction of the product to the
market, commercialization includes the entire timeline from product development to
market saturation.
To better understand how to prepare a go-to-market strategy, there are some essential
elements to consider:
 Customers: Understand who will be making the final purchasing decisions and why
they will be purchasing your product. Create user personas and identify their roles,
objectives, and pain points.
 Value proposition: Identify what makes you different from the competition and why
people should choose to buy your product
 Messaging: Determine how you will communicate your product’s value to potential
customers
 Channels: Pick the right marketing channels to promote your products, such as email
marketing, social media, SEO, and more
You will need to constantly track and measure the success of your product launch and
make adjustments if it doesn't achieve the desired goals.