Topic 14 Flashcards
What is product planning?
Product planning is the management of the product portfolio, including New Product Development and management of existing products.
What is the product life-cycle?
All products go through a product life-cycle of introduction to market, growth in sales, maturity and decline. However, individual product lifetimes can vary greatly.
What is the purpose of product planning?
Product planning of the product portfolio helps to ensure that as one product declines, a new growth product is in place to maintain company revenue.
What is the Boston Matrix?
The Boston Matrix is a model for describing a product portfolio. It classifies products into Stars, Cash Cows, Dogs and Question Marks (or Problem Children).
What is a Cash Cow in the Boston Matrix?
A Cash Cow is part of a stable market and holds a large market share, therefore a large income should be generated with minimal effort. They may need minor modifications to keep them current and careful customer service to maintain their market share.
What is a Star in the Boston Matrix?
A Star is part of a growing market, often as the market leader. The company should seek to maintain market position so that if the growth rate leads to a large market base then they will become Cash Cows.
What is a Dog in the Boston Matrix?
Dogs have low share and low growth but may still be profitable. Large investment would be required to increase market share so normally the product should be discontinued.
What is Concurrent Engineering?
Concurrent Engineering is the integration of expertise in design, development, marketing, manufacturing, and sales in creating new products as early as possible in the design cycle.
