Developing and Introducing a New Product in the Market - Case Study Example

Developing and introducing a new product Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Executive summery This project proposal is all about how to develop and introduce a new product in the market. The problem that led to development of the new product by Boost Company is stiff competition from other businesses which have developed variety of products which are preferred by the customer. The objectives of this project proposal are to increase the sales, improve public relations and maintain competitive advantage. The proposal further discussed the resources needed for the project which include financial, material, technological and environmental resources. On the other hand the assumptions of the project include that there are skilled employees and the financial estimation is adequate for the project. Finally, it also discussed the various risks involved in the project like competition risks, inadequate financial resources risks and environmental concerns. Background This research project will be conducted at Boost Company. The Boost Company is among the leading manufacturers of juice drinks and snacks in Australia. The Company started as a single outlet but gradually grew to be among the leading Juice and snacks manufacturers. Among the products of Boost Juice Company include juice water melon and orange squeeze (Boost Company, 2012). However due to the competition in the market, many products have been developed by the competitors with the aim of attracting and maintaining customers so that they can generate adequate revenue for the company. Due to the development of new products by the competitors, Boost Company started to experience a decline in the sales which in turn affected the overall revenue for the firm. In this regard, the Boost Company is contemplating of developing new products in the market. This project proposal is all about how the Boost Company can develop and introduce new products in the market so that it will remain competitive and continue enjoying the revenue. This project proposal will investigate the various ways in which the company can develop and introduce new products in the market. Through the introduction of new products, the company will able to meet the customer demands by offering variety of brands. In order for Boost Company to develop and implement new products effectively, it needs to have experts who will conduct research and development concerning the product to be introduced. The company will also motivate the employees through rewards and training so that they will be innovative and come up with new products and their features to meet the customers’ needs by offering new products in the market. In this aspect, this project proposal will enable the company to remain competitive in the market as before and generate higher revenues by offering new products in the market as the competitors (Frame, J 2003). Aims and purpose of the project proposal The aim of this project proposal is help the management of Boost Company to improve its sales and generate high revenue from the sale of newly developed product to meet the needs of various customers in terms of quality and variety of juice drinks offered. Through the increased revenue, Boost Company will be able to generate capital to invest more and diversify the resources. The project proposal will further be helpful to management when making policies about how to develop a new product which can be preferred better by the customers than those of the competitors. This project proposal will focus much on the factors that affect the sales of Boost Company particularly the effect of competitors developing new products which serve the same purpose as the juice drinks of Boost Company. The proposal will further assess the various strategies that will be used to develop and introduce the new product like the green apple which has proved to be among the most preferred juice drinks by the customers. This project will focus on Boost Company and how it will be able to develop and introduce new products in the market so that it will meet the competition in the market for the customers. In addition, the project will focus on how to develop and introduce the new product. Finally, the project will focus on the promotional strategies applied by Boost Company to market their new product. On the other hand, this project will not examine the organizational structure and how the various ranks in the Company are valued. This project proposal will also not examine the products which are already being manufactured by the company because it focuses on the development and introduction of new product which is green apple drink. Objectives of the project proposal The objectives of this research project are the following; I. Help Boost Company to improve their sales and generate more revenue II. Improving the relationship between the company and the customers by manufacturing products which their needs in terms of quality and variety of products III. Improve the performance of the Company in terms of market share by offering variety of products which will enable the company to gain competitive advantage Outcomes of the project proposal The outcomes of this project include the following; The Boost Company will be able to achieve its aims and objectives by gaining the customers confidence through provision of variety of products that meet the customers demands. The Boost Company will be able to improve its competitiveness in the market by meeting the customer needs of manufacturing different varieties of drinks and snacks. Further, the Company will be able to improve the skills of the employees as a result of the training which some employees undergo so that they can conduct research and development of the products. On the other hand, the customers’ expectation will be met and will be satisfied with the manufacturing and introduction of new products in the market. Finally, increased employment opportunities is also another outcome of the project because more specialists will be hired to conduct various tasks like product design and conducting market research as well as research and development. On the other hand, there are measures that should be taken to ensure the project is a success. These measures include effective allocation of resources such as financial resources (Project Management Institute 2008). The employees involved in the development of the new product should be experienced so that they will be able to assess the various constituents of the new product. There should be top management involvement in the development of the new product so that they will provide necessary support like the training programs for employees who will be involved in the development of the new product. There should appropriate promotional strategies to enable the marketing department to ensure that they create awareness of the new products to the clients in the right manner. Through promotional strategies, the company will be able to attract and maintain new customers. Through the presentation of the research report, the management of the Company will be able to make decisions concerning the betterment of the Company like what the company can do to improve the sales and maintain its competitive advantage. Approach and methodology The project will be implemented by allocating various responsibilities as the follows; there will be the project manager who will be the overall of the project management (David, 2013); there will be the marketing manager who will be responsible for the promotion of the product and the research and design manager who will be responsible for conducting market research. This responsibility breakdown is shown in the A below. The milestones of the project and that should be considered include regular monitoring of each phase of the project to ensure that quality requirements are met. Special emphasis will be put on designing and marketing the green Apple which is a new product to ensure it meets the customer requirements as one of the objectives of development of the new product (David, 2013). The project resources that will be needed in the project include the financial resource which is estimated to be $8328, the human resources skills, technological expertise, raw materials and equipment. These resources are shown in appendix B below. The project will be a strategic plan for the organization which will be implemented in three phases. The first phase is to conduct research and design of the new product, allocation of resources and the third phase is the real implementation of the project. The estimated cost of the project is $8328 for various expenses like training employees, purchasing materials, conducting research and development and promotions. The reporting on the progress of the project will be done monthly to monitor the progress which will be done by the communication manager after gathering all the data for the whole month (Larson & Richard 2009). The risks associated with project include the financial risks, environmental risks, and lack of support from top management, inadequate skilled personnel and legal affairs as shown in appendix C below. The project is estimated to take two years and nine months. It will start by setting the objectives, drafting the expected outcome, resource assessment, conducting market research, a holiday break, risk assessment, implementation and finally assessing the progress of the project (David, 2013). The time plan for this project is shown in appendix D in the appendices. On the other hand the assumptions of the project include financial assumptions, environmental assumptions, functional and HRM assumptions as illustrated in appendix E. Resources The resources that are needed during the project so as to make it a success include the financial resources. The financial resources will be contributed by the organization members to ensure that all the materials which and other expenses necessary for the project are met. For instance, conducting research and development needs finance and therefore the project will only be successful if the financial resources are adequate. Another resource needed is the human resource expertise (WWeiss & Wysocki 2009). This should an obligation of human resource department to ensure that there are skills and knowledge necessary to develop and introduce the new product. They should be able to conduct market research as well as research and development and design strategies which will help the organization to successfully introduce the new product in the market. There should be appropriate technology in place to ensure that the product meets the customer demands in terms of quality (WWeiss & Wysocki 2009). Appropriate technology besides improving quality will also reduce the cost of production which in turn reduces the price of the product in the market. This will help the company to price the new product competitively by charging the product slightly lower than those of the competitors. There should be adequate materials for making the product. When introducing new products in the market, it is important to assess the available of raw materials that will be used to manufacture the product. This will help in continues supply of the materials and continues manufacture of the product to meet the customers demands without stoppages in production. This is the responsibility of procurement department. Equipment should also be adequate which are used in the manufacturing process (Larson & Richard 2009). The Boost Company should that there are adequate equipment necessary for the manufacture of green apple. Without appropriate equipment the manufacturing process will not be a smooth flow process. Therefore the organization should install necessary machines for the manufacture of green apple which is a new product. The approximate financial resource needed to start the project is $8328. On the other hand, the number of human resource skills needed for the start of the project is eight people. Two people will conduct market research and design, two will be concerned with the production technology available, two more will be in charge of the production process and the rest two will promote and sale the product. Risk assessment There are various risks which are involved in the executing the project. These risks if not well managed will affect the successful completion of the project. These risks involve high competition from the competitors who have excelled in the manufacture of the green apple product (Apgar 2006). As a result, the consumers might have developed trust with the other companies manufacturing the same drink thus they have maintained many customers which will make it hard for Boost Company to attract the customers. However through good quality product and promotional strategies the company can be able to attract customers and maintain them. Another risky is the limitation on the available resources or materials (Crouhy et al 2000). The raw materials used to manufacture the product may not be available throughout the manufacturing process which may lead to stoppages in the production of the product. This risky can be avoided with effective planning of raw materials through forecasting and availing adequate inventory to be used during the period of raw materials shortage. Another risk is the environmental risky which will affect the sales of green apple (Beasley et al 2005). During winter, the product may not be sold in large quantities because the weather will not be favorable for the consumption. In this regard, the company should manufacture amount of product which can be consumed to avoid spoilages of stock as a result of low rates of sales. In addition, financial risk can also influence the successful implementation of the new product. This is in the context that with the introduction of new products many resources are needed for various operations like the advertisement, training employees and installing equipment that is used in the manufacture of the product (Barton et al 2002). In this effect therefore, the company should ensure there is adequate finance to start the project so that it can succeed. Conclusion This project proposal is important because it will enable Boost Company to remain competitive in the market by developing and introducing new product to meet the customers’ demands. Initially, the company used to generate high revenues but due to competition which led to manufacturing of new products. In order for Boost Company to remain competitive in the market it needs to develop the new product like the competitors. The objectives of this project proposal is to improve the sales of the company, help the company remain competitive and improving the relationship between the customers and the company. Among the risks involved in the implementation of this project include financial risks, human resource risks, material risks and competition from other firms (Culp 2001). References Apgar, D 2006, Risk intelligence: learning to manage what we don't know. Harvard Business School Press. Barton, L. Shenkir, W & Walker, P 2002, Making enterprise risk management pay off, Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Beasley, M. Clune, R & Hermanson, D 2005, Enterprise risk management: an empirical analysis of factors associated with the extent of implementation. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp.521-531. Boost Company 2012, Retrieved on 30 may 2013 at www.boostjuice.com.au. David, P 2013, Project management, PM world journal, Vol. 2, No. 6, pp. 27-145. Crouhy, M. Galai, D & Mark, R 2000, Risk management, McGraw-Hill Professional. Culp, C.L 2001, The risk management process: business strategy and tactics. John Wiley & Sons. Frame, J 2003, Managing projects in organizations: How to make best use of time, techniques and people, Jossey-Bass. Larson, E & Richard, E 2009, Project requirements planning, Watermark Learning. Project Management Institute, 2008, Aguide to the project management body of knowledge, PMI. WWeiss, J & Wysocki, R 2009, Three phase project management: A practical planning and implementation guide, watermark Learning. Appendices Responsibility Matrix Role: Specifics: Adrian Communications Mangers Transmits information write report edit report Connor Project Manager overseer process examine 2/3 smart objectives Costello Marketing Manager examine a resource promotes the product Jackie Logistic Manager examine Resource distributes the product Appendix A: Responsibility matrix Raw materials Materials used to manufacture green apple product Equipment These are the machines used to manufacture the product Financial resources The finance should be available and adequate to transact all the activities Human resource skills There should be appropriate human skills to implement the new project Technology Appropriate technology will be used to manufacture quality product Advertisements The product will be promoted through advertisement to create awareness among the potential customers Appendix B: Project resources Appendix C: Contingency plan Activity Contents Duration Setting the objectives Improving the sales of the Company Create good relationship between the company and the customers Improve the company’s competitiveness Encouraging innovativeness One month Drafting the expected outcomes of the project Sales improvement Competitive advantage Customer satisfaction Improved Company growth One month Assessment of resources Financial resources Human skills available Availability of technology Equipment needed One month Conducting market research Assessing the available product The pricing of the new apple Distribution channels Customer expectations Two months Holiday One month Risk assessment Financial risks Materials risks Competition Environmental risks One month Implementation Manufacturing of the new product Two years Assessment and evaluation The profit ratio Customer satisfaction Employee performance Revenue generated Two months Total duration 1 year nine months Appendix D: Time plan Resource Assumption Human resource Staff will be available when needed The project staff is experienced Each staff understands his or her role Environmental The environment will be favourable during the manufacturing and selling process Materials will be available all through Financial resources The estimated cost of the project is sufficient to start the project Functional assumptions The project shareholders work together in teamwork The top management supports the project Appendix E: Assumptions of the project Read More