Exam 9: Developing and Managing Products

Which of the following has been found to be an efficient substitute for traditional methods of conducting test markets?

Parris Laboratories has ordered production materials and equipment needed to make its new slow-release chlorine emulsion for swimming pools in its Rossville plant.Which stage of new-product development is Parris Laboratories entering?

Studies of the new-product development process over the last 30 years have concluded that companies that are likely to succeed in developing and introducing new products exhibit certain characteristics.List three of the characteristics that improve the likelihood of successful product introduction.

A global organization that "thinks local,act local" does which of the following?

Otto-Light is a desk light that lets hobbyists match colour swatches accurately without going outside.It's like convenient,natural sunlight inside.The lights have high marketing costs,are sold with high dealer margins,and have high production costs.Ads for the product aim at educating craftspeople who work with fabrics and paints about the benefits of the Otto-Light.In which stage of the product life cycle is the light?

What can the marketers of consumer products expect to find when they study and apply the product life cycle theory to their products?

Which stage of the product life cycle would feature very high promotional expenditures in an attempt to create customer awareness?

There are five categories of adopters that participate in the diffusion process.Name and briefly describe each of these five categories in the correct order from earliest adopter to last adopter.

What is the screening and concept testing stage of the new-product development process used to do?

Why do profits increase during the growth stage of the product life cycle?

Franco likes to be "cutting edge" with respect to new trends but carefully researches the Web for anticipated benefits of consumption from peers and checks out competitive offerings before committing to purchase.Franco is in which of the following groups?

Describe how a multinational corporation can most efficiently and effectively meet the needs of the global market.

After years of development and testing,Jabra Corporation unveiled the Jabra 1000 ear-bud phone.The entire device fits in your ear.Jabra's transmitter picks up your voice by amplifying sound vibrations in your bones.Therefore,there's no microphone boom to jut out in front of your face.Because the bone vibrations must be amplified,a special chip in the part of the system that connects to the base of your phone uses noise-cancellation technology to screen out background sounds.This anti-noise chip generates a mirror image of outside noises,and the colliding sound waves erase each other.The main electronics package-about the size of a deck of cards-also monitors the quality of the phone line and automatically raises the volume of voice transmissions when the connection is weak.This tech-talk isn't cheap: the ear-bud phone lists for $329. -Refer to Jabra Corporation.When the Jabra 1000 was first launched,it most likely appealed to which product adopter category?

When friends of Brian Richardson went to the carnival,they always wanted to take him with them because Richardson had an uncanny ability to win almost every arcade game he played.Usually by the end of the evening his friends were also winning because Richardson did not mind sharing his secrets.His friends urged him to write a book.After several attempts,Richardson created The Secrets of Amusement Park Games-Revealed.In the 85-page book,Richardson reduces the art of playing arcade games to a science.According to him,the trick is to realize each game is not a game of chance.Richardson's mini-book is available at Amazon.ca for $5.95. -Refer to Amusement Park Games.Some people might consider the use of Richardson's techniques as being unethical,and this value judgment could adversely affect its adoption.What does the judgment result from?

Canesta has developed a virtual keyboard out of light to be used with cell phones and personal digital assistants.The product beams an image of a keyboard on a desk,allowing the user to type on the image.The words are picked up by the user's digital device.A clean,flat surface is required for the virtual keyboard.Five product characteristics can be used to predict and explain the rate of acceptance and diffusion of a new product.Use these characteristics to predict the rate of acceptance and diffusion of the Canesta virtual keyboard.

Until the mid-1990s,MGP Ingredients,Inc.sold ethanol and animal feed.A steep drop in its sales led the company to focus on developing the first low-carb proteins and starches.What would these low-carb proteins and starches be an example of?

What takes new technologies and attempts to find useful applications for them?

For years many people perceived it as difficult to tape programs on video cassette recorders (VCRs).They could not master the multiple programming steps.As a result,makers of VCRs streamlined the system.To tape a show,all the user needed was a program number available in TV Guide.Makers of VCRs realized that which product characteristic was slowing sales?

In the adopter categories,the final 16 percent to adopt are similar to innovators in that they do not rely on the norms of the group but are independent because they are tradition-bound.They tend to have the lowest socioeconomic status,are suspicious of new products,and are alienated from a rapidly advancing society.Who are they?

A European dairy,which is famous for its rich ice creams,has introduced basil-,tomato-,fennel-,and oregano-flavoured ice creams. -Refer to European Dairy.What is the introduction of new flavours an example of?