MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY OF AFRICA

STUDENT’S NAME: NANCY KATHURE MBAKA

ADMISSION NUMBER: MML/27/00282/3/22

UNIT TITLE: MARKETING MANAGEMENT

UNIT CODE : MKT 508

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT TEST (CAT)

LECTURER’S NAME:

SEMESTER: MAY-AUGUST 2023

1. Examine the stages involved in developing a new product ( 8 marks)

1. Idea generation (Ideation)

The initial stage of the product development process begins by generating new product ideas.
This is the product innovation stage, where you brainstorm product concepts based on
customer needs, concept testing, and market research.

Consider the following factors when initiating a new product concept:

Target market: Your target market is the consumer profile you’re building your product for.
These are your potential customers. This is important to identify in the beginning so you can
build your product concept around your target market from the start.

Existing products: When you have a new product concept, it’s a good idea to evaluate your
existing product portfolio. Are there existing products that solve a similar problem? Or does a
competitor offer a product that doesn’t allow for market share? And if yes, is your new
concept different enough to be viable? Answering these questions can ensure the success of
your new concept.

Functionality: While you don’t need a detailed report of the product functionality just yet,
you should have a general idea of what functions it will serve. Consider the look and feel of
your product and why someone would be interested in purchasing it.

SWOT analysis: Analyzing your product strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
early in the process can help you build the best version of your new concept. This will ensure
your product is different from competitors and solves a market gap.

SCAMPER method: To refine your idea, use brainstorming methods like SCAMPER,
which involves substituting, combining, adapting, modifying, putting to another use,
eliminating, or rearranging your product concept.

To validate a product concept, consider documenting ideas in the form of a business case.
This will allow all team members to have a clear understanding of the initial product features
and the objectives of the new product launch.

2. Product definition

Once you’ve completed the business case and discussed your target market and product
functionality, it’s time to define the product. This is also referred to as scoping or concept
development, and focuses on refining the product strategy.
During this stage, it’s important to define specifics including:

Business analysis: A business analysis consists of mapping out distribution strategy,

ecommerce strategy, and a more in-depth competitor analysis. The purpose of this step is to
begin building a clearly defined product roadmap.

Value proposition: The value proposition is what problem the product is solving. Consider
how it differs from other products in the market. This value can be useful for market research
and for developing your marketing strategy.

Success metrics: It’s essential to clarify success metrics early so you can evaluate and
measure success once the product is launched. Are there key metrics you want to look out
for? These could be basic KPIs like average order value, or something more specific like
custom set goals relevant to your organization.

Marketing strategy: Once you’ve identified your value proposition and success metrics,
begin brainstorming a marketing strategy that fits your needs. Consider which channels you
want to promote your product on—such as social media or a blog post. While this strategy
may need to be revised depending on the finished product, it’s a good idea to think about this
when defining your product to begin planning ahead of time.

Once these ideas have been defined, it’s time to begin building your minimum viable product
(MVP) with initial prototyping.

3. Prototyping

During the prototyping stage, your team will intensively research and document the product
by creating a more detailed business plan and constructing the product.

These early-stage prototypes might be as simple as a drawing or a more complex computer

render of the initial design. These prototypes help you identify areas of risk before you create
the product.

During the prototyping phase, you will work on specifics like:

Feasibility analysis: The next step in the process is to evaluate your product strategy based
on feasibility. Determine if the workload and estimated timeline are possible to achieve. If
not, adjust your dates accordingly and request help from additional stakeholders.
Market risk research: It’s important to analyze any potential risks associated with the
production of your product before it’s physically created. This will prevent the product
launch from being derailed later on. It will also ensure you communicate risks to the team by
documenting them in a risk register.

Development strategy: Next, you can begin working through your development plan. In
other words, know how you’ll be assigning tasks and the timeline of these tasks. One way
you can plan tasks and estimate timeline is by using the critical path method.

MVP: The final outcome of the prototyping stage is a minimum viable product. Think of
your MVP as a product that has the features necessary to go to launch with and nothing above
what’s necessary for it to function. For example, an MVP bike would include a frame,
wheels, and a seat, but wouldn’t contain a basket or bell. Creating an MVP can help your
team execute the product launch quicker than building all the desired features, which can
drag launch timelines out. Desired features can be added down the road when bandwidth is
available.

4. Initial design

During the initial design phase, project stakeholders work together to produce a mockup of
the product based on the MVP prototype. The design should be created with the target
audience in mind and complement the key functions of your product.

A successful product design may take several iterations to get just right, and may involve
communicating with distributors in order to source necessary materials.

To produce the initial design, you will:

Source materials: Sourcing materials plays an important role in designing the initial
mockup. This may entail working with various vendors and ordering materials or creating
your own. Since materials can come from various places, you should document material use
in a shared space to reference later if needed.

Connect with stakeholders: It’s important to keep tight communication during the design
phase to verify your initial design is on the right track. Share weekly or daily progress reports
to share updates and get approvals as needed.
Receive initial feedback: When the design is complete, ask senior management and project
stakeholders for initial feedback. You can then revise the product design as needed until the
final design is ready to be developed and implemented.

Once the design is approved and ready to be handed off, move onto the validation phase for
final testing before launching the product.

5. Validation and testing

To go live with a new product, you first need to validate and test it. This ensures that every
part of the product—from development to marketing—is working effectively before it’s
released to the public.

To ensure the quality of your product, complete the following:

Concept development and testing: You may have successfully designed your prototype, but
you’ll still need to work through any issues that arise while developing the concept. This
could involve software development or the physical production of the initial prototype. Test
functionality by enlisting the help of team members and beta testers to quality assure the
development.

Front-end testing: During this stage, test the front-end functionality for risks with
development code or consumer-facing errors. This includes checking the ecommerce
functionality and ensuring it’s stable for launch.

Test marketing: Before you begin producing your final product, test your marketing plan for
functionality and errors. This is also a time to ensure that all campaigns are set up correctly
and ready to launch.

Once your initial testing is complete, you’re ready to begin producing the final product
concept and launch it to your customer base.

6. Commercialization

Now it’s time to commercialize your concept, which involves launching your product and
implementing it on your website.
By now, you’ve finalized the design and quality tested your development and marketing
strategy. You should feel confident in your final iteration and be ready to produce your final
product.

In this stage you should be working on:

Product development: This is the physical creation of your product that will be released to
your customers. This may require production or additional development for software
concepts. Give your team the final prototype and MVP iterations to produce the product to
the correct specifications.

Ecommerce implementation: Once the product has been developed and you’re ready to
launch, your development team will transition your ecommerce materials to a live state. This
may require additional testing to ensure your live product is functioning as it was intended
during the previous front-end testing phase.

Your final product is now launched. All that’s left is to measure success with the initial
success metrics you landed on.

2. Argue how perception affects consumer buying behaviour (4 marks)

Consumer buying behavior can be defined as a series of activities people engage in when
searching, evaluating, selecting, purchasing, using and disposing of products and services so
as to satisfy their needs and desires.

In the store, the packaging acts as a gateway to the product. Consumers look at the packaging
and respond to how it makes them feel at that moment. If the consumer feels that the product
can potentially satisfy their needs, it influences their buying behavior.

This feeling is a result of choices made across several cognitive stages, thus most consumers
find it to be complex and overwhelming at times. Since consumers are often in state of
confusion, the most important role of packaging is to alleviate their fears. This article
analyzes a typical consumer buying behavior in detail to highlight the role of packaging
throughout.

Packaging as the Stimulus

Based on Ian Pavlov’s classical conditioning theory, we can treat the consumer as a subject
who gets exposed to a product on the shelf, wrapped in its packaging, as the stimuli. The
stimuli in this case is heavily cultured to affect subject’s response and achieve a desired
consumer behavior.

Decision Making Along Path to Purchase

The classical conditioning theory suggests that product packaging directly influences a
consumers perception of the product. And the influenced value perception of product is
bound to affect consumers buying decision.

Perceived value may be seen as an “an overall assessment of the utility of a product based on
perceptions of what they receive (quality) versus what they give (price)”.

Making a buying decision involves consumers to go through several cognitive and affective
mental stages before they make a choice. When consumers recognize a need by themselves or
upon provoking, they start to actively look around and consume information available across
various channels. Based on what is presented to them during these stages, they form an
attitude towards particular choices they begin to trust. After a choice is made, and consumer
decides to make a purchase they continue to evaluate their decision while enjoying the
product experience.

Perception Building across the Path

To ease the burden of making a buying decision, consumers seek inputs from their reference
groups — family, friends, colleagues, reviews on online forums, and several other means.
Each of these inputs acts as a signal that affect their attitudes and perception towards the
product. But filtering information to find the right signals is difficult and it is even harder to
retain this information. There are evidences showing that consumers retain only the
information that either appeals to them emotionally or one that strengthen their beliefs.

When exposed to conflicting signals, consumers get confused and tend to exhibit impulsive
buying behavior. Under such circumstances, they rely on product packaging to provide
visceral cues which enables them to skip through several decision making stages.

An adaptation from Torben Hansen’s conceptual framework explores relationships between

various aspects affecting consumer perceptions as they progress through various stages — if
consumers perceive a product as highly valued, they get satisfaction from actively engaging
themselves in the decision making process.

An Explanation

Consumers directly equate price with quality. They expect products with high price to offer a
high quality experience over other. Throughout the decision making process they look for
cues to validate their own expectations. If consumers spent time in validation and available
cues indicate a superior quality, they often create emotional ties.

When the perceived value of a purchase decision is very high (its financial or social
implications), consumers are very cautious. This explains why people are careful when
purchasing gifts, or planning for special occasions. Consumers are willing to spend time,
involving themselves into the process and ensuring they choose the best under given
circumstances. The degree of involvement is subject to consumers personal, psychological,
and social contexts hence the extent of their pursuit can’t be determined but their willingness
to engage is certain.

When perceived value of a purchase decision is low (for routine decisions), consumer tend to
take impulsive decisions. This explains why over 70% purchases in supermarkets are
unplanned. Although, consumers appear to skip most stages during impulsive buying,
cognitively they are responding to the visceral cues from product packaging in many cases
and making instant snap judgements about product quality. The importance of these cues in
shaping purchase decision can be assumed from the fact that every 9 out of 10 consumers
prefer in-store purchase when 5 of them had already researched online

Conclusion

The rationale for exploring the psychology behind packaging design is to better understand
how we as interaction designers can use digital tools to create value for modern consumers.
This analysis leads us to two very important conclusions:

1. Packaging is the gateway to product perceptions.

2. People are willing to engage, and digital tools can make it exciting
3. Discuss the rationale for marketing planning in an organization (8marks)

A marketing plan is a document that lays out the marketing efforts of a business in an
upcoming period, which is usually a year. It outlines the marketing strategy, promotional, and
advertising activities planned for the period.

Elements of a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan will typically include the following elements:

Marketing objectives of the business: The objectives should be attainable and measurable –
two goals associated with SMART, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Relevant, and Time-bound.

Current business marketing positioning: An analysis of the current state of the organization
concerning its marketing positioning.

Market research: Detailed research about current market trends, customer needs, industry
sales volumes, and expected direction.

Outline of the business target market: Business target market demographics.

Marketing activities: A list of any actions concerning marketing goals that are scheduled for
the period and the indicated timelines.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) to be tracked

Marketing mix: A combination of factors that may influence customers to purchase

products. It should be appropriate for the organization and will largely be centered on the 4Ps
of marketing – i.e., product, price, promotion, and place.

Competition: Identify the organization’s competitors and their strategies, along with ways to
counter competition and gain market share.

Marketing strategies: The development of marketing strategies to be employed in the

coming period. These strategies will include promotional strategies, advertising, and other
marketing tools at the disposal of the organization.

Marketing budget: A detailed outline of the organization’s allocation of financial resources

to marketing activities. The activities will need to be carried out within the marketing budget.
Monitoring and performance mechanism: A plan should be in place to identify if the
marketing tools in place are bearing fruit or need to be revised based on the past, current, and
expected future state of the organization, industry, and the overall business environment.

A marketing plan should observe the 80:20 rule – i.e., for maximum impact, it should focus
on the 20% of products and services that account for 80% of volumes and the 20% of
customers that bring in 80% of revenue.

The purpose of a marketing plan includes the following:

To clearly define the marketing objectives of the business that align with the corporate
mission and vision of the organization. The marketing objectives indicate where the
organization wishes to be at any specific period in the future.

The marketing plan usually assists in the growth of the business by stating appropriate
marketing strategies, such as plans for increasing the customer base.

State and review the marketing mix in terms of the 8Ps of marketing – Product, Price, Place,
Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence, and Performance.

Strategies to increase market share, enter new niche markets, and increase brand awareness
are also encompassed within the marketing plan.

The marketing plan will contain a detailed budget for the funds and resources required to
carry out activities indicated in the marketing plan.

The assignment of tasks and responsibilities of marketing activities is well enunciated in the
marketing plan.

The identification of business opportunities and any strategies crafted to exploit them is
important.

A marketing plan fosters the review and analysis of the marketing environment, which entails
market research, customer needs assessment, competitor analysis, PEST analysis, studying
new business trends, and continuous environmental scanning.

A marketing plan integrates business functions to operate with consistency – notably sales,
production, finance, human resources, and marketing.

Structure of a Marketing Plan

The structure of a marketing plan can include the following sections:

Marketing Plan Objectives

This section outlines the expected outcome of the marketing plan with clear, concise,
realistic, and attainable objectives. It contains specific targets and time frames.

Metrics, such as target market share, the target number of customers to be attained,
penetration rate, usage rate, sales volumes targeted, etc. should be used.

Market Research – Market Analysis/Consumer Analysis

Market analysis includes topics such as market definition, market size, industry structure,
market share and trends, and competitor analysis. Consumer analysis includes the target
market demographics and what influences their buying decisions – e.g., loyalty, motivation,
and expectations.

Target Market

This defines the target customers by their demographic profile, such as gender, race, age, and
psychographic profile, such as their interests. This will assist in the correct marketing mix for
the target market segments.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis will look at the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses and
external opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis includes the following:

Strengths are the organization’s competitive advantages that are not easily duplicated. They
represent the skills, expertise, and efficiencies that an organization possesses over its
competitors.

Weaknesses are impediments found in the operations of an organization, and they stifle
growth. These can include outdated machinery, inadequate working capital, and inefficient
production methods.
Opportunities are prospects for growth in the business through the adoption of ways to take
advantage of the chances. They could include entry into new markets, adopting digital
marketing strategies, or following new trends.

Threats are external factors that can affect the business negatively, such as a new powerful
competitor, legislative changes, natural disasters, or political situations.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy section covers actual strategies to be included according to the
marketing mix. The strategy centers on the 8Ps of marketing. However, firms are also at
liberty to use the traditional 4 P’s of marketing – product, price, place, and promotion. The 8
P’s are illustrated below.

The correct marketing mix is determined by the target market. The most expensive options
are advertising, sales promotions, and PR campaigns. Networking and referrals are less
costly.

Marketers also need to pay attention to digital marketing strategies that make use of
technology to reach a wider market and have also proven to be cost-effective.

Digital marketing channels, which became popular in the early 21st century, may eventually
overtake traditional marketing methods. Digital marketing encompasses trending methods,
such as the use of social media for business.

Other strategies within the marketing strategy include pricing and positioning strategy,
distribution strategy, conversion strategy, and retention strategy.

Marketing Budget
The marketing budget or projection outlines the budgeted expenditure for the marketing
activities documented in the marketing plan. The marketing budget consists of revenues and
costs stated in the marketing plan in one document.

It balances expenditures on marketing activities and what the organization can afford. It’s a
financial plan of marketing activities to be carried out – e.g., promotional activities, cost of
marketing materials and advertising, and so on. Other considerations include expected
product volume and price, production and delivery costs, and operating and financing costs.

The effectiveness of the marketing plan depends on the budget allocated for marketing
expenditure. The cost of marketing should be able to make the company break even and make
profits.

Performance Analysis

Performance analysis aims to look at the variances of metrics or components documented in

the marketing plan. These include:

Revenue variance analysis: An analysis of positive or negative variance of revenue. A

negative variance is worrisome, and reasons should be available to explain the cause of
deviations.

Market share analysis: An analysis of whether the organization attained its target market
share. Sales may be increasing whilst the organization’s share of the market is decreasing;
hence, it is paramount to track this metric.

Expense analysis: An analysis of marketing expense to sales ratio. This ratio needs to be
compared to industry standards to make informed comparisons.
The ratio enables the organization to track actual expenditures versus the budget. It is also
compared to other metrics, such as revenue analysis and market share analysis. It can be
dissected into individual expenditures to sales to get a clearer picture.

Administration of a Marketing Plan

The marketing plan should be revised and adapted to changes in the environment
periodically. The use of metrics, budgets, and schedules to measure progress towards the
goals set in the marketing plan is a continuous process by marketing personnel.

There should be a continuous assessment to verify that the goals of the marketing plan are
being achieved. The marketing manager should be able to review if the strategies documented
are being effective, given the operating environment.

It is irrational for the marketing manager to notice anomalies and wait to review at year-end
when the situation might have already deteriorated.

Changes in the environment may necessitate a review of plans, projections, strategies, and
targets. Therefore, a formal periodical review – such as monthly or quarterly – may need to
be in place. This may mean preparing an annual marketing plan but reviewing the plan
quarterly to keep targets and plans aligned closely to environmental changes. It goes without
saying that plans are as good as their feasibility to succeed in the given environment