Introduction to Marketing / Product Development

Assignment: 

Your team is being challenged with creating a new product.  Once developed, you will need to identify your target market and then determine the marketing mix.  In order to be successful, you must cover all of the following topics:

Part One: Define the product and the target market: (7 pages):

• Define the “newness” of the product (innovative, replacement or imitative).
• How did you come up with the idea for the product, describe your process.
• What market need or market niche will this product fulfill.
• Who is the target audience?  Describe in terms of geographic, demographic and psychographic segmentation.
• Describe the market place in which you will compete and how you will fit into this marketplace.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis on your product to best determine your products position in the marketplace.

Part Two: Determine the marketing mix: (10 pages and 5 Powerpoint slides):

• The Product – along with unique attributes as compared to the competition
• The Price – price level in the market place as compared to competition and justification
• The Placement – distribution channels
• The Promotion – including a fully integrated marketing communications campaign

Resources:

• articles that we review in class
• our marketing text
• class discussions
• class slides

Audience Participation:

The audience members are expected to listen attentively as well as ask meaningful questions and offer suggestions at the end of each presentation. 

Extra Credit: 

As part of the final presentations, class members will have the opportunity to invest (or not invest) in your team’s product concept.  The groups receiving the most investment dollars from their peers will receive two extra credit points on their final class grade.