PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
by Sreeram
1987-88 saw a high –profile
launch of a food
PRODUCT from Parle (Exports) (Makers of Thums up .Limca ,Gold Spot etc) called
Big Bite. The launch was preceded by several teaser campaigns in Bombay which had punch lines as “Crunch , Munch ,Gulp. Don’tcha feel like a Big Bite now. Bombayites responded overwhelmingly and the first month pf the launch ,90% of the target customers had tried Big Bite .But, thereafter the repeat purchase declined and in less than six months it had reduced to 10%.Big Bite was like a burger .It was a bun with vegetables or chicken or mutton filling and garnished with onion ,tomato ,lettuce, etc topped with different sauces Big Bite was a big failure and Parle had to withdraw the product .Our
research showed that Big Bite did not live up to the customers’ expectation .Customer found it dry compared to its nearest rival ”Rolls” and perceived it to be like any burger .Further ,while their expectations were raised by the Big Bite advertisements, the product failed to live up to them.
Likewise .at one stage in 1989,Economic Times , a leading business
newspaper, had a circulation of only 99,924 copies and readership of 1,69,000 (NRS III). The management wanted to revitalize the
paper as it wanted to maintain Economic Times’(ET) leadership. The newspaper was facing competition from business Standard in Calcutta and a threat from The Observe Group as well Marketing Research conducted by path Finders showed that Economic Times was perceived as an “institution” a strong financial paper, belonging to the Times of India group, hence having a national image .The ET research Bureau and the Economic Times HBSAI Awards were seen as the assets of Economic Times Further the product (ET) was seen increasing reader’s knowledge , hence the loyalty was high But, it was found to have a poor quality because of the poor print, paper and design .The readability was also low as the writing style was perceived to be too dry band formal Even the coverage of events was found too be limited in the newspaper Keeping all these factors, the Economic Times was personified as old ,staid, conservative ,mature, solid but not rigid ,knowledgeable trustworthy and reliable .Based on this research, a revitalization process of Economic Times was undertaken.
The research findings were implemented in the revitalization process through consolidation of assets and enhancing the product offering to offset any negatives as shown in the box.
This process of revitalization resulted in an increase in the newspaper circulation by more than 35% Both these cases of Big Bite and ET bring to fore the importance of product in the marketing strategy of an enterprise and the fact that no customer buys only the tangible features but, the total concept.
‘Sreeram’ is the pen name of the above abstract writer. His name in the professional field is V.Sree Rama Rao, B.E. ( Mech ), MIMA, M.I.E. is a Techno- commercial business consultant based at Mumbai the financial capital of India. He can be cotacted on
e-mail : vsramarao1@rediffmail.com