Abstract
Marketing, a tactical apparatus for company growth, is important for the enlargement and continued existence of micro, minute & medium ventures. Marketing plays a significant part for the accomplishment of any enterprise.
The Marketing picture, which offers a stand for experts and customers to talk about new methods of marketing, the efficiency of advertising tendencies, exact advertisement promotion and the impact of various data’s in the market. The paper is an attempt to provide the various information about the challenges does a company face when developing new products in the global economy, how has technology assisted in the effort, and Legal and ethical implications loom large in today’s business environment.
Introduction
The marketing scene is the vital activity in the current scenario for the promotion and making the products much familiar and within the short range of the people. The marketing scene has its origin from the new product development, the new product is an innovation or the remake of the existing product in the market by the continuous effort and the research.
The marketing scene and the product development are mutually related, the new product is in the market by the result of following various steps,starting from the idea of a new product to the planning ,budgeting, manufacture of the prototype and to the finished product. Once the product is in the final stage the marketing scene has to take place by the different sales promotion methods like the advertising, personal selling , Public relations and campaigns. ”Traditionally marketing of a product generally follows a certain pattern, this means the marketing program outlines the problem to a prospective client and presents its product to solve the problem or need” (Annacchino, 2003, p.389).
The challenges a company face when developing new products in the global economy
The challenges are the stepping stones to success and the overcome of the challenge makes the business a performing one and the most enduring one. Product development planning is much fundamental to organizations’ continued existence.”The new products often fail because companies misunderstand the most promising markets and the channels of distribution and because they misapprehend their own technological strengths or the products technological challenges” (Clark & Wheelwright, 1994, p.153). The challenges of the firm can be internal and external in due regard to the product development, the ideas are inherited in various concepts and the need of the product development.
Value Adding
The sequence of totaling value has drastically changed, from the past simple adding has led to the most complicated challenge in customization and in mass selling. The customer has a dynamic nature and the Customers regularly are dynamic inhabits and purchasing. There are many prospective ways to obtain, gather, infer, transform data, where the data are not used up to the mark in getting the profit.
Product line extensions
The product line extensions are mainly used for the increase of profits and to have stability in the marketing arena, but the major challenge in this kind is to start an expectation not on the product line but on the customer line.
The cost reduction
The cost reduction is becoming an increased challenge for the new product development. If the new product has to be in the market, the manufacturer has to concentrate on the penetrated pricing for the hiring of the target market and in meeting customer satisfaction.
The 4 marketing P’s
The international market deals with many P’s of the marketing, the customer mainly aims at the product and the services, the various kinds of the results obtained are from the hard work and the tremendous efforts, The marketing 4 p’s doesn’t suit all the requirement of the product and the service, the p’s should be extended to the 17 p’s of the modern marketing concept.
Product development methodology
Lack of maturity in Product Development Methodology talent as in comparison to the Application Development Methodology Skills of the people. Product Development is not similar to function development. The way to defeat is by employing people who are much experienced in product development or hiring freshers untarnished by other company’s product development advancement.
Sustainability
In managing the product of the company, maintaining keen focus and self-reliance should be the biggest of all challenges. There are many reasons for gaining and losing focus but the hard work and the enthusiasm of the employees should prevail to overcome the challenge.
The examples of Companies that have faced such challenges
Toyota
Toyota is the global leader in the automobile industry, still, it has to face various challenges in the new product development, various efforts were made to launch the product in time but the president wanted to advance the launch by a year, the difference in the opinion was a major threat, the employees had to face. The various other challenges are:
- The latest approach to engineering management — A research on engineering management roles and setting up the talents.
- Innovative knowledge management – Use of innovative structure for storing, access and retrieving of data.
- A change in design — Implementation of good designs and use of concurrent engineering.
- The development process – The focal point on development principles and keen focus on product and design outcome.
US Pizza
The Pizza is the much-reputed food industry, the various challenges faced by them are:
- Health hazards due to frozen materials.
- Least research and development opportunity.
- Threat from the competitors in the same arena.
- The less number of products in the product line.
Pharma Industry
The challenges faced by the pharma co. are:
The challenges of the existing and ensuing situation which is uncertainty, and bound with quick expansions in technology. The position of the pharmaceutical industry, forced for change, is the effect of an amalgamation of political, economic, and technology factors, the developments in the international industry has been reduced due to high cost in R&D. Firms have found it harder and harder to maintain a past level of expansion chiefly due to converging factors. First, the salaries of the pharma companies are being progressively more compared to market realization due to legal policies and rivalry; and second, due to intensifying costs of R & D, growing government necessities and emergent technology policies.
The technologies support the marketing effort
The marketing effort is the strategy by means of inbuilt goals to achieve the target goals; marketing efficiency is one of the primary features of marketing which deals with the success of the marketing actions to capture the minds of the target audience and consumers in performing successfully and attaining eye-opening outcomes. Technology assists the marking effort to achieve the most productive outcome of the firm. “Technology infrastructure and support is an integral element of EU utilization. The analysis reveals three levels of EU support and development skills among the cases” (Khosrowpour, 2002, p.934).
Most excellent exercise of Technology to hold up Marketing Efforts will be rewarded for one of the most innovative exercises of technology in holding up organization marketing attempts or efforts. In the nowadays aggressive financial system and globalization, it is very much necessary to be better equipped to be successful. Customers currently, equipped by means of the internet, are more knowledgeable than in the early period. So the situation now is to update technology supports to marketing efforts in many ways. Effectual exercise of technology helps to sustain important reserves to improve organizations’ various services.
If the entrepreneurs who truly want to take full advantage of their marketing attempts will obtain the results with the change in their business arrangement. This is mainly for the reason that the internet has altogether altered marketing activates for equally huge and minute organizations in a similar way. And also at the same time, the research, execution and reply to marketing attempts can at present hold within formerly incredible frames and by means of far fewer investment that was necessitated in the earlier period. The three situations where the requirement of the technology supported the marketing efforts are below,
- Research and development – At the time of the research and development stage we can see that the support of technology in the marketing effort. “High technology companies can make the transition from being innovation-driven only by effectively linking the R& D and marketing efforts” (Shanklin & Ryans 1987, p.121). If the research and development capacities of the organization are advanced to those of the rivals it will help to attain better success. The challenge is a stepping stone to achievement and overcoming the dispute makes the company a performing one and the most lasting one.
- Competition- Technology supports the marketing effort at the time of competition as well. Well planned rivalry, effectual enforcement and rivalry-based monetary improvement encourage enlarged competence, economic development and service for the advantage of each and every one. Up to date technology helps to develop and launch the products as well as services to meet the requirement of the customers. So we can see that at the time of competition technology assist the marketing effort of the organization.
- Advertisement – It is the other situation that we can see the technology support the marketing effort. Various types of challenges is faced by the organization at the time of launching a new product. The challenges of the firm can be internal and external in due regard to product enlargement. Various type of emerging technology helps to create the ad more productive to reach the target audience. So that this will create more awareness about the products and services to its immediate consumers. All these are some of the important situations where technology assists the marketing efforts.
Legal and ethical implications loom large in today’s business environment
Ethics in marketing is very essential because ethics are the honorable principles on which marketing should be based. The fundamental marketing ethics should be value-oriented and should consist of values like honesty, integrity and lucidity. There are a number of issues in marketing ethics like the ethics in market research, ethics to be followed while dealing with the potential and targeted customers, the ethics in pricing, the ethics that need to be followed in advertising and promotions. The codes of ethics in marketing should be both ethical and legal.
The ethics that need to be followed in market research are that the marketing f a product should not invade the privacy of the customers. The marketing should be honest and should not manipulate the buying interest of the consumer but should create an urge in the consumer to buy the product because of the product’s specific qualities. Internet market research should also be fair and legal and should not invade the privacy of the customers. While conducting market research when the firm says that it would not reveal the identity of the customers who participate in the survey then it should do it truthfully and not show the participants of the survey in the media without the prior permission of the participants.
General Electricals (GE) is a very good example of a company that has followed corporate ethics in marketing. GE’s businesses are all legal and in compliance with the US government rules and regulations. The company is highly vigilant to protect its image from corruption and its marketing activities are fully transparent and ethical. “GE’s risk-management and financial know-how, as well as its “uncompromising implementation of ethics, its interest in talent, and its management philosophy” is the secret of the company’s high profile success (Ihlwan, 2009, para.6).
Pricing ethics is also very important in marketing. There are various ways of price fixation like the horizontal price fixation, the policy of price discrimination, deceptive pricing, etc. pricing is a very subjective matter and it is very difficult to evaluate its ethical and legal factors. The best example of the importance of ethical issues in pricing is in the case of pharmaceutical or medical drugs companies.
Medicines are very important because they are the cure for a disease and therefore are life-saving drugs so the pricing of medicines should be ethically and legally done. Therefore the pricing of drugs should be legally done even though drug manufacturers do have to spend immensely on the research and development of drugs. Novartis Drug Company is an excellent example of a drug company that has followed the ethics and has priced its products ethically and legally. The company has received a number of awards for implementing corporate ethics, especially in pricing. “Novartis received the 2006 Prize for Corporate Ethics” (Managing corpora ting citizenship, 2010, para.1). Novartis believes inequitable pricing and is highly ranked for its corporate ethics.
Product line extensions are another challenge faced by companies where they have to strictly follow ethical and legal issues. In the extension of product lines, the ethical and legal issue involved is as to who the legal or rightful owner of the product is and whether the product line extensions are in terms with the law. The Coca-Cola company which has extended product lines and a wide variety of products is a very good example of a company that follows market ethics and law. The Coca-Cola company has received a number of awards for its sustainable production and development in terms of legal and ethical marketing issues.
“As the company watched consumption patterns change in the US – where consumers are becoming more health and cost-consciousness – it focused marketing on its take-home division” (Worlds most admired companies: Coco cola, 2010, para.3).
Conclusion
Marketing research is a very wide topic and it begins right from the idea generation about a product to the product’s launch and its after-effects in the market. Therefore market research should be carefully done. Challenges faced by each company are different even though the nature of challenges may be similar. The challenges need to be fought legally as well as ethically according to the moral principles. The use of technology in market research is immense. Marketing research should be both legal as well as ethical in order to maintain the company’s as well as the product’s brand image.
Reference List
- Annacchino, M. A. (2003). New product development: From initial idea to product management. Butterworth-Heinemann, p.389. Web.
- Clark, K. B. & Wheelwright, S. C. (1994). The product development challenge: competing through speed, quality, and creativity. Harvard Business Press p.153. Web.
- Ihlwan, M. (2009). GE brings a new strategy to life. Bloomberg Business Week.
- Khosrowpour, M. (2002). Issues & trends of information technology management in contemporary organizations. Idea Group Inc, p.934. Web.
- Managing corpora ting citizenship. (2010). Novartis.
- Shanklin, W. L. & Ryans, J. K. (1987). Essentials of marketing high technology. Lexington Books, p.121. Web.
- World’s most admired company: Coco-Cola. (2010). CNN Money.com: Fortune. Web.