Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Dr. H. Kwame Afaglo ©2010

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Until recently, all developing economies are established ‘feeder states’ to the rest of the world. However, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore etc, have moved from that status into significant ‘global market shakers’. ‘Feeder states’ normally supply raw materials unto the marketplace that attracts relatively lower prices, and prices are dictated by consumers, of which most African-Caribbean-Pacific countries (ACP countries) are.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world ‘Global market shakers’ produce and supply to the rest of the world finished products, at prices determined by demand and supply dynamics. It can be inferred that a product is understood from the point of the consumer and price wise. Further, consumers use the product to satisfy a need, want or desire and at a cost. Invariably, the saying ‘ ‘There is no free lunch’ is real.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Therefore a product can easily de defined as; a commodity (goods and services) that satisfies a want, need or desire and at a cost. So, product(s) must be perceived from the consumer’s perspective, since it is tailored to satisfy his or her want or need or desire and at his or her cost. Examples, food, water, air etc are all products. There is the common error of phrasing ‘gift of nature’ as free, e.g. air, however if a city dwellers wants enjoy fresh and health air he

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world or she has to travel or own a house in the country-side at cost of travel expense or rent, mortgage or spot price of house. Another, per view is the cost of air (oxygen) to an ill individual. The above example goes to substantiate the earlier definition of what a product is. Types of product ‘Feeder states’ as ACP countries are largely involved in supplying tangible goods in the

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world raw form, advanced developing economies are into both tangible and intangible products of higher returns than earlier mentioned, e.g. China and India. Advanced economies are more into services especially ideas of which generates higher surplus than the earlier two mentioned conditions e.g. United States of America (US), Euroland, United Kingdom (UK), among others. Also, as mentioned in a previous presentation (Marketing for Growth in Developing Economies) people in advanced economies have higher

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world disposable income and therefore are the main consumers of products of all types, so eventually dictate the price of a products. Deductively, a product could be of either a single form or matrix with its relative pricing indicator as shown below: Product matrix (Table 1)

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Much as this presentation is not interested in singling out a state or country, benchmarking is a worthy exercise. Japan is one country that is optimising the benefits of the product matrix as both finished ideas and intangible. Explaining the terms will thus shade more light on the product matrix of Table 1. Raw material – A commodity in its primary or original form, say, ore of metals. African countries produce a lot of mineral ores that are exported for

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world processing, e.g. gold from Ghana, South Africa, Diamond from Swaziland, etc. Semi-finished material – Commodities that have been processed from the raw condition, however, not an end product to the consumer yet. Mostly, trade at this stage is B2B (Business-to-Business). E.g. Aluminium ingot in China and the Caribbean, timber lumps from Russia, etc. Finished products – A ready condition for end user.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Also at this stage value is added to the product, thereby increasing its worth e.g. off-the-shelf food, drinks, electronics, vehicles, furnished house, etc. Interestingly, prices of all three stages of processing keeps appreciating from raw to finished. Added value and pricing Adding value to a product requires a theoretical look at the components of a product with respect to pricing. There are

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world three components of a product as: Core – The actual portion of the item or service that is been sort for by consumer. Here the intrinsic value is the most important portion the consumer needs or wants or desires. However, consumers do not satisfy the needs with just the intrinsic portion, they opt for variations and an attempt to satisfy their psychological make up. Auxiliary – Choice and psychological make up on the part of consumer has called for

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world firms’ to include auxiliaries to products. Preferences has encouraged some firms to tailor products strictly on-demand and customised products based on quality. Features be it colour, functionality, smell, feel, auditory contributes to the differentiation of a product from others. Hence, competing products in an attempt to grab the attention of consumers opt for packing, labelling, and branding. Proving that a product does meet the desirable standards by the standards board is another plus for auxiliary component

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world of products. In significant cases, pricing of the auxiliary component forms the bigger portion of the cost of product and not necessarily the core. Some brands connote quality and durability, e.g. products from Marks and Spencer, German vehicles, etc. Unfortunately, most ACP countries have not created strong brand names, hence loss out significantly on cost of their produce in international trading. Branding and especially the auxiliary component of produce is a vital tool in market penetration.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Augmented – Here the thought is on added value to product, specifically, returns policy, Insurance, guarantee, warranty, customer services, environmental-friendly, accessibility etc. Due to the low level of branding in developing economies, insightful issues returns policy is not widely implemented. Consumer right bodies and regulatory bodies must enact and enforce returns policy in all developing economies.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Warrantees and guarantees must also encouraged as one of the means of gaining customer loyalty. It is an undeniable fact that customer loyalty is a pillar in marketing. Insurance must be factored into pricing of products so as minimise the risk on both the producer and consumer. Customer services starting from the front desk, stacking, telephone discussions, bank transactions, security among others, form a part of costing though minimal.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world A growing number of environmentally-friendly consumers need to be satisfied from this section. E.g. paper carrier bags to replace polyethene bags that are not bio-degradable. Products must be accessible at all times and on different platforms, so as to satisfy consumers of all shades. Although, currently most people in developing economies must physically move to the seller for purchases, with the slowly deploring internet use, a segment of consumers will go virtual.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Transactional services as banking, travel tickets, hotel and entertainment products must be encouraged to be online. Information Technology is to be used from the customers point of view in order to maintain existing customers and new ones who are savvy. With the growth of African transnational corporations in banking and air travels, it is important organisations do well to respect their customers and not treat them with contempt as a good number of them are currently practicing.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Product Life cycle and New product Variety, choice, affordability, taste and preference and competition have defined a common life cycle for every product. Since products are only what they are because of consumers, just as s consumer has a life cycle, so does products do likewise. Birth – market penetration of an entirely new product is extremely difficult and requires a lot in advertisement, couple with the fact that the brand name is yet to be established. Entirely new product(s) entry into the market is quite a tricky venture, since it is to compete against existing, tested, tried and proven brands that consumers

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world know. Do keep in mind the unknown is always a risk to take on. An innovation on existing product is also a new product, interestingly, has a comparatively less difficulty in penetrating the market. However, the birth of a product unto the market is expensive and requires significant investment in advertisement. Small to medium scale enterprises (SME) in developing economies could use the internet network system of followers to serve as base of clientele, say, twitter, facebook, myspace,

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world linked, bebo etc. All the mentioned internet social networking sites are at no extra cost, hence can be used as an effective vehicle. Other marketplace sites as ebay and asHime.biz are equally a cheaper form of market penetration but with global users. The following are the URLs could assist. www.twitter.com www.facebook.com www.ebay.com www.asHime.biz

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Birth comes with a lot of comments from prospective customers, and it is the responsibility of marketers to be customer friendly and collect data in that line as a quality assurance modality. Growth – When the product is known upon quick and responsive marketing, it becomes an accepted product and brand name is recognised through advertisements. Sales picks up accordingly and consumers ignore hitherto well purchased products.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Here, word-of-mouth is the most significant form of expanding clientele base. Customer recommendation is a powerful tool, hence, existing customers must be handled with care and maintained with periodic gifts and messages as a reminder of product. This is the critical point where new products returns exceeds existing ones, partly because consumers get a better satisfaction from new product or price or additional features or environmentally friendly presentation.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Maturity – Product at this stage tends to convert consumers into loyal customers, because product has hit its peak of returns. Inasmuch as a product can not retain a life long market dominance, it is the marketer’s responsibility to ensure the product stays on top of the competition as long as possible. However with new products contesting on quality and added features or entirely new innovation, it is relatively impossible for a product to be an all-time high. Until the 2007 global recession, Citigroup was on top of the

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world financial markets, when Bank of America emerged as the new market leader. Price wars is another factor that topples market leaders. Since, market leaders turn to become large and complex organisations, so does their expenditure also increases and are passed onto consumers. This serves as a disincentive and a necessary grounds for customers to shift the buying behaviour to a substitute or alternative.

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Though price wars do not last long, it benefits consumers who tend to take advantage of drop in prices through information from price comparison websites, say, Kelko, lastminute.com, etc. Take-over is another factor that is likely to creep in when a product attains maturity, instead of it been up-staged by a new product. Take-overs if well arranged and agreed are beneficial to all parties involved (consumers, firms and legal bodies).

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world E.g. Pricewater House taking over Coopers in the financial set-up, Morrison taking-over Safeway and Wal-Mart taking over ASDA. Take-overs insulates mature firms from experiencing decline. Decline – Just as sales returns begin to dip, there is a frantic effort to recover image or brand per increased advertisements. Firms at this stage enter a state of denial, hence try frantically to increase advertisements and believe they can be on top. This approach is short-lived, instead firms must re-engineer themselves with a new product

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world lines, whiles maintaining existing product to satisfy the few loyal consumers. Sony, still has the VHS recorders whiles it has increased production of Blu-ray players, recorders and disc. Recommendations Developing economies must do well to operate from the optimised end of product matrix, so as to satisfy consumers and earn a higher than currently. Brands must be progressively established based

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world on the values of marketing as presented in earlier presentation (Ethical thoughts of Marketing for Developing Economies). Environmentally-friendly packaging and enhanced labelling with standards be enforced by regulatory bodies and consumer right bodies. Products from developing countries must be licensed, patent acquired and rigorously protected. ‘A product is only worth what it is, provided it is acceptable by consumers and at a cost’

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world : 

Products - Developing Economies unto rest of the world Thank you