What Is Involved in Product Planning and Development?

Product planning refers to product planners' research and development, based on understanding the market, customer needs, competitors, external opportunities and risks, and market and technology development trends, based on the company's own situation and development direction, formulate Can grasp the market opportunity, the vision of the product that meets the needs of consumers (Vision) and the strategic and tactical process of implementing this vision.

Product planning

Product planning is a complex task that includes many aspects, including:

(1) Market and industry research

Product planners research a variety of information related to product development and market development, including information from the market, sales channels, and internals; research demand information from users or feedback; research competitors: research product market positioning; research product development strategies, etc. .

(2) Communication

Product planners should maintain good communication with consumers and developers, managers, product managers, etc. in a timely manner, and not only at the planning stage, this communication should cover the entire product life cycle.

(3) Data collection and analysis

The most basic and important content in product planning is to collect various types of data related to product planning and scientifically analyze these data.

(4) Propose vision goals for product development

The basic task of product planning is to propose a vision for product development, and to familiarize and understand this vision with relevant personnel in the company through various communication channels.

(5) Establish a long-term product plan In addition to presenting the long-term goals of the current product, product planners are also responsible for designing and describing the long-term development plan of the product (such as a development plan within 3 to 5 years).

In addition, product planning is also free from product development cycle constraints. In other words, product planning usually spans the entire product development cycle. At each stage of the product development cycle, the product planners' working methods are not significantly different. They will always know about customers, markets, and technological innovations. , And adjust or improve product planning based on internal and external changes.

American scholars have proposed a three-level product theory, that is, any product can be theoretically decomposed into three levels: the product core layer, the product physical layer, and the product extension layer.

The core level of the product is a problem-solving service, that is, the reason why the consumer actually bought or used the product.

The core level of the product should help users solve the most basic problems.

The tangible layer of a product is the transformation of the product into a tangible entity or service, a visible and tangible product layer. This level has five characteristics: quality level, product characteristics, brand name, form, and packaging. This is the most intuitive and most attractive level.

The product extension layer means that the manufacturer can provide consumers with more services and benefits beyond the physical goods. For example: free installation and maintenance services. This concept requires corporate marketing staff to think more, provide services that exceed consumer expectations, and give complete satisfaction to increase consumer satisfaction and repurchase rates.

The product planning process is generally divided into the following steps

Understanding the market

Environmental analysis (PEST analysis)

Market analysis

competition analysis

Self-analysis

SWOT analysis

Describe the market map

Business Design Evaluation

Market segmentation

Clear market segmentation goals

Three-dimensional analysis of market segments (WHO? WHAT? WHY?)

Organize and summarize information, and output market segment description table

Portfolio analysis

SPAN analysis of alternative market segments

FAN analysis of alternative market segments

Combined analysis with goals

Update segment description

Develop business strategies and plans

Preliminary assumptions on the financial goals of the market segment

Perform a gap analysis

ANSOFF analysis

Comprehensive technology life cycle analysis, SWOT analysis, $ appeals analysis, profit zone analysis, etc.

Update financial plans for market segments

Develop business plans for market segments

Organize and summarize related information

Expand into business plan according to 6 elements of business plan

Converge and optimize business plans

Integrated Product Business Plan

Commitment to business plan

Manage business plans and evaluate performance

Custom assignment

Ensuring business plan execution

Assess performance against business plan

Make changes to business plans as needed

There are many standards for dividing product categories, such as price, performance, and appearance. Products can be analyzed on multiple standards to plan the product structure from multiple perspectives and systems. However, which factor is used as the primary classification criterion plays an important guiding role in the overall product planning work.

Faced with a dazzling array of products, consumers are sometimes at a loss. How to enable consumers to figure out when faced with complicated product information and find the product that suits them as quickly as possible is the mission to be completed for product serialization.

Common competition strategies include the following three types

Product differentiation strategy

Low cost, high efficiency operation strategy

Customer affinity strategy

Here (referring to the case of not crossing product categories), the length of the product line refers to the price range covered by the lowest and highest prices, and the width of the product line refers to the number of models provided in a certain price range.

A product that is too short is not conducive to market competition, but a product line that is too long or too wide can cause problems. First, the product display space provided by the terminal point of sale is limited, and a product line that is too long cannot be fully displayed at the terminal. Second, the customer s Attention resources are also limited, and the product line is too long, so customers need to spend more time to understand product information, increase customer purchase time and hesitation, which is not conducive to actual sales transactions. Finally, more importantly, the launch of each product requires development, production, and advertising to pay corresponding costs. A long product line will undoubtedly lead to an increase in total operating costs, but sales and market competitiveness will not increase in the same proportion. After exceeding a certain growth limit, it will even increase in inverse proportion.

Therefore, a reasonable and reasonable product line length and width planning must optimize the cost input and profit output under the premise of improving market competitiveness as much as possible, and take into account restrictions such as terminal sales points.

The length planning of the product line can be used as a reference for major competitors. It adopts a strategy of slightly higher in the high end and slightly lower in the low end. A little higher in the high end is conducive to improving the image, and a low in the low end to achieve price sniping. For example, the boss's Chinese-style wash-free product line has adopted this strategy when dealing with Saucon. Its high-end 235 retail price exceeds 2,000 yuan, which is higher than Saucon's MD85 model at 1780 yuan, while the low-end 516 is 780 yuan, which is The retail price of Shuaikang's M315 is 880 yuan. Because product line planning needs to be designed and formulated based on competitors, in the kitchen and bathroom industry, the main types of competitors facing urban markets and county markets are different. In order to facilitate the formulation of different

The process of a product going from market to delisting is the life cycle of the product. The planning of the product life cycle is to control the speed and pace of product updates. The life cycle of a product needs to go through four stages of introduction period, growth period, maturity period and decline period. Newly listed products in the introduction period can bring new ideas and highlights to the market, but the gross profit may not be able to increase quickly; Long-term product sales are rising rapidly but rely on expensive market costs. Products that have been on the market for a period of time are the pillars of sales and profits, but they are constantly facing the threat of tight prices and shrinking profits. The products that are out of date are declining In the last stages of his life, he can contribute himself as an excellent weapon to snip competitors at a low price. Each (or each series) product is at a different life cycle stage and plays a different role in the entire product line. How to plan the life cycle of each series of products and form a healthy and orderly replacement of new and old products is the key to controlling the overall rhythm of the product line.

Let new products in the introduction phase explore the future and take on market risks that are still inconclusive (slightly slower pace); give strong support to the marketing of new products that have shown market potential, and increase their rapid growth (accelerated pace); let mature The current products can withstand the sales volume, and they can keep the city intact. While maintaining the status quo, appropriately adjust the price and stick to the appetite of consumers (slow pace). Empty your inventory as quickly as possible while sniping your opponent (fast pace).