EOC Week 8: Disastrous New Products

A new product that I think would not do well at all is a cell phone strap that straps your cell phone to your head. A large black Velcro strap attached to your cell phone wraps around your head to keep the phone against your head placed perfectly to where you can hear and speak into the phone without your hands.  Besides the fact that the strap would be ugly and uncomfortable, the strap would also be obsolete; most people use blue-tooth hands-free devices for that purpose. Maybe if a cell phone strap product that was a little more discrete and comfortable came out years ago, before any Bluetooth hands free devices were available, it could have been successful; but in today’s market, it could not work. Another product that would inevitably fail would be a $1000 handbag that has no well known brand attached to it. People pay that kind of money for handbags not because the bag itself is worth that amount of money, but because the bag has the logo or name of an upscale brand like Louis Vuitton or Gucci on it. The value assigned to a brandless handbag is generally under $20. Even if the zippers were made out of gold, the bag would still be almost worthless as there would be absolutely no brand recognition and therefore no reference for assigning value. One more product that would definitely not work out would be cookie-dough flavored toothpaste. People brush their teeth to clean them; the goal of teeth-brushing is to end up with a clean and fresh feeling mouth. Using toothpaste flavored like cookie dough would completely defeat the purpose of brushing teeth and I am certain that it would be a huge flop.

Implementation Evaluation Control

Finally, the time has come to implement my marketing plan and the commercial that was produced for the product Q-Tips. “Through implementation, the company turns the plans into actions” (Armstrong and Kotler 55). The video has been put up on YouTube.com and is now viewable by anyone who searches for Q-Tips commercials. Once the advertisement is out there, I can evaluate how it is working. I can evaluate if my initial goals are being met, and how effective the marketing strategies I implemented are. “Control consists of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing activities and taking corrective action where needed” (Armstrong and Kotler 55). With my evaluations, I can then take action to correct any errors in my marketing strategy. If I feel that there is something that can be done to better reach my goal, I can take the appropriate steps to make the necessary adjustments to my strategy and advertisement. Through evaluation and control, I will be able to see how my plan is working and make any final changes to make it run more smoothly. This is the last stage of the marketing plan elements and is where the marketing plan really comes to life, and where I can truly see its effectiveness.

Price

The price of my product is around $4.99 for a 500 pack of Q-Tip brand cotton swabs. This is around two dollars more expensive than a generic version of the same product. “If consumers perceive that the company’s product or service provides greater value, the company can charge a higher price” (Armstrong and Kotler 280). People are aware that Q-Tip brand will cost more, and they are willing to pay it because it is of a higher quality. Consumers will pay premium prices for the Q-Tip brand because the brand name Q-Tip has become synonymous with the word cotton swab; this is called dominant mind share and is the ultimate goal of any company when choosing a brand name. “Many firms try to build a brand name that will eventually become identified with the product category” (Armstrong and Kotler 231). Q-Tips must be sold at a price that is higher than their competitors because of the brands perceived value. If Q-Tips suddenly started to cost less than or even equal to their generic competitors prices, consumers would be utterly confused and might start to think that Q-Tips aren’t all that great after all. Keeping the price of Q-Tips affordable but not so low as to lose its perceived value is what my goal is in terms of pricing.

Promotion

Promotion means “activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade target customers to buy it” (Armstrong and Kotler 54). Promotion can include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations. The advertisement that I am creating for Q-Tips is a promotion that emphasizes the many uses of the product and attempts to persuade the targeted group (men) to purchase it. Promotion is part of the marketing mix, “the marketing mix consists of everything the firm can do to influence the demand for its product” (Armstrong and Kotler 53). This particular promotion is aimed at getting men to go out and purchase a product that is typically purchased by women. The commercial will hopefully get men to laugh and start to think about using the product and going out to purchase it themselves. The ad is going to focus on the fact that Q-Tips can be used for many different things and that every man can find a use for the product.

Distribution

The best method of distribution for Q-Tips is intensive distribution. Intensive distribution is “stocking the product in as many outlets as possible” (Armstrong and Kotler 324). The reason why making sure the product is stocked well in as many locations as possible is important is because Q-Tips are not a product that people typically go out to pick up exclusively. The consumer needs the convenience of being able to go to a store for something else and ending up with Q-Tips because they were there. “Companies often pay too little attention to their distribution channels, sometimes with damaging results” (Armstrong and Kotler 312). Distribution channels must be considered at all times, how and where the product is being distributed can have a huge factor on the success and sales of the product. Any store which would typically carry Q-Tips should always be stocked with the product to ensure that any consumer who wants it is able to get it. If a consumer goes to the store for Q-Tips and there are none, they are either going to purchase the generic brand or nothing at all. If the Q-Tip advertisement is able to get the consumer to go to the store for the product but the consumer ends up buying the competitors brand because there is no stock, the brand begins to suffer.

Product

The product that I am marketing to men is Q-Tips. Everyone is familiar with the brand name, and a lot of us probably use the brand name Q-Tip interchangeably with the actual word for the item which is cotton swab. The product is a small paper stick with tightly wound cotton on either end and is typically purchased and used by women. The most common uses for the Q-Tip product include cleaning out the ears, applying ointments and creams, and cleaning dust from hard-to-reach places. Besides those uses, however, Q-Tips are known for being able to be used for so much more. “Consumers see products as complex bundles of benefits that satisfy their needs” (Armstrong and Kotler 211). Q-Tips are a great product because of the sheer number of things that they can be used for; one fairly inexpensive product satisfies so many different needs of the consumer. Q-Tips can be classified as a convenience product because they are “low priced, and marketers place them in many locations to make them readily available when customers need them” (Armstrong and Kotler 211). Q-Tips are a great product because they are perceived to be of a much higher quality than their competitors, they are available almost anywhere, and they have so many different uses.