Abstract
Most firms try to market products and services in an integrated way to strengthen innovative offerings in competitive marketing, in order to boost revenue and profit streams, and balance cash flows. The hybrid marketing strategies drive companies towards attracting and prospecting new customers, and increasing demand by offering them superior value, for example, the iPod from Apple combined with the iTunes service. Such experiments in marketing new products have revealed the promise of combined offerings with reasonably high market share. However, many companies stumble in offering the right combination of products and services in reference to failure to differentiate, failure to scale, failure to assess markets and prices appropriately, and failure to invest in the brand. A multi-benefit package offers customers an increasing number of add-on features or benefits including one-stop convenience shopping (Shankar et al., 2009).
Rapidly growing technology and innovation of competitive products are turning the existing marketplace complex as most companies keep changing their product strategies and also phase in risk and uncertainty in managing their products. This chapter draws together theoretical concepts, strategic thinking processes, and recent research findings, and will help the reader conduct in-depth product analyses in reference to the product-mix. It will also help the reader develop strategies for managing competitive products through various product attractiveness measures. This chapter explains issues on defining products and developing product strategies in reference to determined segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Public policy issues concerning products, new product development, the stage-gate process, and product customization strategies are also critically examined in this chapter.
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Rajagopal (2016). Product Strategies. In: Sustainable Growth in Global Markets. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137525956_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137525956_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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