Bose's Essay: New Product Development Process For Smartphones With High-Quality Speakers.

his assignment explores the journey from ideas generation through to the launch of a new product or service. It examines the processes behind new product development (NPD) and it also considers the potential risks involved

Team working is an important component of both learning/development and also within business/marketing functions, so one of the aims of this unit’s assessment is to create a ‘team-working environment’ that seeks to replicate real-world experiences.

You are a working for a business consulting company namely London Business Consulting (LBC) Limited. Your team has just been commissioned to develop a proposal of a new or improved product or service, in the form a creative, dynamic and detailed PITCH to the board of directors of the assigned client company. For your reference, following must be included in the PITCH:

• Overview of the company.
• New or improved product or a service proposed.
• Market opportunity for the proposed product or a service.
• Marketing strategy proposed.  
• Synopsis of the competition and industry.
• Financial overview.
• Capital/Investment required (If any).

Also, ensure that product or service is developed using the NPD including:

• Ideas generation.
• Ideas screening/selection.
• Concept Development and Testing
• Marketing Strategy
• Business analysis.
• Product development
• Testing
• Commercialization

Now that your group Presentation/ Pitch is over, you are assignment another task by the same client. You are required to prepare an individual report including the following:

1. An introduction to the organisation and partner companies (if applicable).
2. An overview of the different products and services offered in their company’s portfolio.
3. An evaluation of a range of the products and services in relation to their lifecycle stage.
4. An evaluation of how to manage the lifecycle stages and the choice of appropriate product line management choices. Provide justification for your recommended choices.  
5. Reflective statement – reflecting on the creative process, the group dynamics and the presentation/pitch that was completed in Part A. Your reflection should cover the following:

• An explanation of each of the NPD processes applied for new or improved product/service development.
• An explanation of how each stage of the process was applied and the techniques and methods used.
• What were your contributions and which part of the pitch was presented by you?
• How did the team function?
• How did the team undertake the assignment?
• How did the team organize and plan their work?
• What was the level of interaction between the team members?
• Did the group discussion enable creativity within the teamwork?
• Did the team work well together or was it dysfunctional? If the latter, how was this dysfunctionality eventually managed, if at all?
• What was the quality of the final presentation?
• With hindsight what should have been undertaken differently and why?

Bose is a corporation that is dedicated to selling audio equipment. The company has it central office in Framingham, Massachusetts and it was founded by Amar Bose in 1964. Bose has dominated the audio system business by provision of quality home system audio systems, speakers, professional audio products, noise cancelling headphones and automotive sound systems. The reputation behind Bose is associated with the company’s desire to protect its patent, the trademark as well as the brand. The primary vision of the founder was to develop new technologies that would help people and also create a culture that values team work and innovation. The founders believed that by achieving thigs, better things would follow. The company has passionate engineers, marketers, developers, retailers and also dreamers whose sole goal is to give the customers the best experience so they cannot feel the need to go anywhere else. The company’s mission is to think of better solutions, create better products and help people enjoy the things they love. The vision of the company is guided by people’s interest, that is, how quality sound affect people or how it feels to find happiness in devices that function as we want them to. At Bose, nice customer service is considered a promise they have to keep for their customers. Bose corporation invites innovators, creators, dreamers and talented people to provide ideas to the company because they believe that innovation is not a destination but a journey.

The company should consider indulging in development of smartphones that are already incorporated with quality speakers. This step would eliminate the need for customers to buy separate speakers or headphones for their smartphones. This development would require the company to follow eight stages so as to produce a quality end product. These steps have been elaborated bellow.

Figure 1 Product development life cycle

By implementing the internal and external SWOT analysis and marketing trends, the company can generate ideas that are consider affordability, ROI and costs associated with these ideas. During the new product development process, it is important to keep the system nimble and also include flexible discretion regarding the activities that are to be executed. The idea may be analyzed from different dimensions in so as to get an overview of the different types and risks levels in the project. New ideas can be generated by, conducting market research, getting suggestions from consumers or employees, brainstorming, obtaining feedback from agents or dealers and also studying new products introduced by the competitors (Shroyer et al., 2018).

An idea committee can be assembled by the Bose management. All the ideas are carefully studied and analyzed by the committee. They then discus and agree of the best idea design (Baxter, 2018). Among the question that the committee must ask before selecting an idea or rejecting it include; how important is it to introduce the new product? Can the plant in existence support production of the new product? Can the network in existence for marketing sell the new product? Is the new product capable of breaking even? Any idea that gets all this question a positive response is selected and the rest are scrubbed out. The main importance of this stage is to avoid failure of a new product (Gabriel et al., 2016).

Part A: Activity - Scenario

This stage is performed after screening and selection of an idea. This stage involves finding out whether or not the customers understand the new idea, whether the product is needed or not and finally, whether customers will accept the product in development. the stage is executed by selecting a small group of customers and the briefing them on the full details of the product. They are then asked to give a feedback on what they think of the product. If majority of the consumers feel that the idea is great, then the next step is executed.

Development of marketing plan for the new production is done at this stage. A well detailed plan of how the plan will be distributed is produced. It documented to make sure that is functional and effective.

Stage five: Business analysis

This stage is crucial to the whole process. A detailed business is done while the company is trying to find out whether or not the product under development is profitable. In this stage, the company seeks to find out the price of the product, demand, competition it will face, total sales and expenses associated with the product in development (Guo, 2019). The new product is therefore studied from a business perspective. Acceptance of rejection of the product is based on profitability of this product.

By this stage, the new product has already been approved by the company. The necessary steps are executed and the new project is developed. The production department is responsible for product development while the marketing department plans on its distribution (Haider et al., 2019).

The product is introduced into the market in small scale. The success of this small scale sale determines its introduction in large scale. In case the product fails, the company is obliged to find the reason it is failing and hence find a solution to that. After fixing, the product is introduced again in small case and its performance monitored. It is important to note that the company should reject the product is it fails again.

This stage is only performed if the former stage is successful. It involves the company in large scale introduction of the new product. The new product is distributed in huge scale. At this stage the product is also advertised (Mishra et al., 2018).

The smartphones to be developed by Bose would be targeting the youths who are known to take interest in good sound especially for listening music. Other potential customers can be fished out listing to consumers, looking at the competitors and also performing an analysis of the current trends and insights in the industry. This technique would help the company identify the potential consumers in the market and hence define a market share.

The marketing for the new product can entail several strategies. A pre-launch giveaway can be arranged. This technique would ensure the product takes of quickly by creating a feeling of excitement and expectation among the customers. Customers are engaged in a game of luck and the lucky ones are given the new product. The winners in turn spread the word about the new product. The method of sharing this information has to a viral one. For example, use of social media. Another technique would be the use of the company website. This requires the Search Engine Optimization to be set on point. This will in turn translate to a good position on search engines. For this to be successful, consumers need to have information that is valuable to them. The following key areas should be optimized, keywords and the first paragraphs of texts. Finally, the company can consider using shareable content. This is actually one of the top digital marketing strategy. A blog that explains about the new product could be set up. It has to be interesting so that the readers feel the need to share it to their friends and family or revisit the site and hence generate traffic in the website.

Part B: Scenario

As other products, the newly introduced product must face competition. So as to deal with this, it is important that the company know their competitors. A bench marking of all competitors must be performed to identify what strategies they are employing and hence generate sound ideas to help Bose stay on top of the competition (Guo, 2019). The company should also look at the competitors as a motivation to do even better. Continuous investigation and introduction of creative ideas will retain Bose at the top of its competitors.

Figure 2. (Shannon, 2013), Forces to be considered during this phase

The financial aspect of any new idea is very crucial towards its plan. the development of one smartphone will go to up to an estimated value of three hundred and twenty US dollars. Once in the market, the same phone will be value at a retail price of four hundred and twenty US dollars. This prices will be able to cover the production cost and also profit the company in a great way. The profit obtained after the company has eliminated the cost of material and related manufacturing cost will help the company develop new ideas and also improve on the already produced product by enhancing its features.

Table 1 Shows the cost of production for one smartphone

The project will first be executed in small scale. A thousand smartphone will be developed in the first phase. The total capital required for the development will be three hundred and twenty thousand USD. Development of a single smartphone will take a month. The labor for a single unit production will amount to two thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight USD. This will translate to two million eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand for the whole production.

Table 2 Expected returns for the project

Bose organization is a private company that majorly manufactures and sells audio equipment. It was founded by Amar Bose back in nineteen sixty-four, and its located in Massachusetts specifically in Framingham. It is highly recognized for production of loudspeakers, audio products that are professional, automobile sound systems, home audio systems and noise cancelling headphones (Carr et al., 2015). It has created and maintained a good reputation due to the act of protecting its patents, brands and trademarks. A larger part of it, is owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that gets cash dividends from the donated non- voting shares by Amar Bose. At the end of its financial year, 2017, the annual report indicated that it received a revenue of three point eight billion US dollars as well as hired over eight thousand staff members.

Bose began with the car speakers whereby it evolved over time and started manufacturing automotive with an attempt to reduce the vibration of the drivers’ seat. It later increased its variety of products to computer speakers, televisions, shelf stereos, audio products that are portable and home audio. It introduces headphones that comprised of over-ear, aviation, in-ear and military prototypes (Rohde et al., 2019). It took another step of installing Commercial sound systems that were used for public address. The product line used for the analysis is audio system which include, automotive audio systems, home audio system, headphones and commercial speakers.

Overview of the company

Figure 3 Product mix

Chart 1 Product life cycle

The product lifecycle is briefly discussed below.

1. Introduction stage

It’s the initial stage and also the most expensive when it comes to launching a product. Market size for the product is low and so are the sales. Cost for research, testing and marketing needs is high.

2. Growth stage

This phase is characterized by high sales and profits. This gives the company motivation to invest more money in the product.

3. Maturity stage

The product is fully developed and the main aim here is to maintain the market share. It is the most competitive stage for the product.

4. Decline stage

The market for the product begins to shrink. The shrinkage can be associated with consumers switching to a different product or saturation of the market. Switching to cheaper production methods would help the organization make more money here.

Its manufacturing factories are located in the United States, Malaysia, China and Mexico. It produces products such as;

2017. Automotive – Bose attempted to sell aftermarket car speakers that were his first OEM audio installation back in 1983 that came out unsuccessfully. Despite its failure, he was able to supply audio systems for different car manufacturers extensively. This gave the company a greater business standard where it won an Award as the Best Storage Solution for the environment of a Car. In 2004, the company introduced an idea about the prototype active suspension system that was to be associated with electromagnetic motors besides hydraulic power. This system with the adaptation of the electromagnetic system objected to either lower or raise the automobile wheels trying to solve the issue of uneven bumps or potholes found on the roads. They raised the wheels so as to keep the maintain the level of the vehicle with the same ideologies as those of the audio devices of noise cancelling. With the system developments and advancements, it became too expensive for the company such that they decided to sell it in November 2017. They adopted a Bose Ride truck seat system in 2010 that was to help in reducing back pain, fatigue and the physical stress on the truck drivers through the reduction of the vibration felt from the roads.
2018. Home audio and video- with the diversity of the company, it was able to increase a number of products in 2012.  These products ranged from televisions, the computer speakers, home audio that entailed 2.1 systems, packages of speaker and 5.1 systems, marketed SoundLink portable audio products and the shelf stereos that were marketed as the Wave systems, SoundDock and the SoundLink Air.
2019. Commercial sound speakers- after the establishment of its professional division in 1972, it created and installed systems used for public address. It took a top position as the company that paid for the Olympics sound system supplier that provided audio equipment during the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and the 1992 Winter Olympics that were in Albertville. One of the commercial sound system was the Bose L1 that was introduced in 2003 with the L1 Classic models. This was then substituted in 2007 by the L1 model and the L1 Model II. Afterwards in April 2009, there was a new system known as the L1 Compact that was a bit smaller and lighter. The final system was the B2 Bass Module and the L1model 1S that were as a result of the substitution of the L1 Model and the B1 Bass Module respectively (Rahmani & Taherizadeh, 2017).
2020. Headphones – in 1989, the company introduced Bose Headphones that have been existing ever since. Currently they have increased the headphones variety to the aviation, over-ear, in ear and the military samples. This made them sign contracts with NASA and the United States military.

The life cycle of a product is an idea that involves the product’s life in the market in relation to the costs and sales measures of the business (Mayer et al., 2016). It involves four types of phases which includes; the marketing phase, the growth phase, the maturity and decline phase that are all governed by different principles, tools, processed and skills. To manage the product life cycle, it is assumed that the products available should have a life that is limited and each has a life cycle (Stark, 2015). Secondly, the sales of the products go through a number of stages with distinct challenges, problems and opportunities to the wholesaler. Also, they need to have a difference in marketing, purchasing, human resource, manufacturing and financing approach in every phase of the life cycle. The company also has to use product line to estimate the trends that determine the target market thus providing a room for expansion (Pereira et al., 2015). For instance, for the Bose company to attract and increase the marketing population, they focus on introducing more creative ideas in their production sector of the audio equipment. They highly ensure they keep up and maintain the objective of producing more car speakers, headphones, commercial sound systems, home audio, home video and automotive.

After pitching the idea on the new product, the members presented a detailed summary of the stages of product life cycle. One of the stage is the idea generation whereby ideas are created from an internal and external SWOT analysis and the market trends. The second one is the phase of screening or selecting ideas. This is conducted through a committee that is assembled by the Bose management for analyzation and selection.  The concept development and testing stage entails finding out whether or not the customers have understood the new idea, if the product is required or not and whether customers will agree to the development of the product. The fourth phase is the market strategy that includes the formation and documentation of a well distributed marketing plan for the development of the new product. In the business analysis phase, a detailed business is required as the company is still finding out on the profitability of the new product (Jenkins & Williamson, 2015). The product development is attained after the approval of the new product and the execution of the necessary steps is done as well as the development of the product. The test marketing is the seventh stage that calls for introduction of the new product into the market in small scale. It helps in determining whether the product fails or succeed in the market (MacMillan et al., 2016). The eighth and final stage is the commercialization that is performed after the success of the test marketing whereby distribution of the new product is done in large scale.

Proposed product

I researched on the test marketing stage whereby I learnt that the Bose company considers this a very crucial stage. This is because at this stage it can predict of how it is going to thrive in the market. It can tell of the chances of success or failure it has once it manufacture its products in large scale. In case of failure it can identify the weak or the root source of the reasons behind that and seek for ways to improve or handle such issues in case they occur in the future. We first ensured that we understood what was required of us in the assignment. This was by reading through the drafted questions one at a time and brainstorming on the sample answers to give. We later researched on the assigned questions of the assignment and summarized the collected points into paragraphs. Each team members were allowed to share their opinion or give an answer from their point of view. This gave us the platform to challenge our thoughts concerning the questions. After exhausting our ideas, we chose to research as it helped us to narrow deeper. We worked hard on the assignment and researched widely to give the required answers. We created time for the assignment through scheduling and planning for a group discussion that was twice a week.

References

Baxter, M., 2018. Product design. CRC Press.

Carr, A.A., Boyle, S.D., Dryden, J.K., Krauss, K.M., Laude, M.E., Schaal, N.D., Silva, M.J. and Tierney, J.E., Bose Corp, 2015. Headphones. U.S. Patent Application 29/475,707.

Dryden, J.K., Carr, A.A. and Tierney, J.E., Bose Corp, 2016. Headphones. U.S. Patent Application 29/524,908.

Gabriel, A., Camargo, M., Monticolo, D., Boly, V. and Bourgault, M., 2016. Improving the idea selection process in creative workshops through contextualisation. Journal of cleaner production, 135, pp.1503-1513.

Guo, Y., 2019, April. Analysis on the Status Quo of Competition in Mobile Audio Industry Under Dynamic Competition Environment. In 3rd International Conference on Culture, Education and Economic Development of Modern Society (ICCESE 2019). Atlantis Press.

Haider, A.A., Zafar, A., Khalid, A., Majid, A., Abdullah, M.A. and Sarwar, M.B., 2019. Marketing Management.

Jenkins, W. and Williamson, D., 2015. Strategic management and business analysis. Routledge.

MacMillan, C.T., Brousseau, J.C. and Roche, M.S., 2016. Bose IR Reception Test Improvements.

Mayer, T., Melitz, M.J. and Ottaviano, G.I., 2016. Product mix and firm productivity responses to trade competition (No. w22433). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Mishra, R., White, B.R., Marino, D. and Dzado, J.T., Bose Corporation, 2018. ADVERTISING MEDIA PROCESSING CAPABILITIES. U.S. Patent Application 15/262,502.

Pereira, J.A., Constantino, K. and Figueiredo, E., 2015, January. A systematic literature review of software product line management tools. In International Conference on Software Reuse (pp. 73-89). Springer, Cham.

Rahmani, M. and Taherizadeh, A., 2017. Dual of bass numbers and dualizing modules. Communications in Algebra, 45(4), pp.1493-1508.

Rohde, J., Jahnke, U., Lindemann, C., Kruse, A. and Koch, R., 2019. Standardised product development for technology integration of additive manufacturing. Virtual and Physical Prototyping, 14(2), pp.141-147.

Shroyer, K., Lovins, T., Turns, J., Cardella, M.E. and Atman, C.J., 2018. Timescales and ideaspace: An examination of idea generation in design practice. Design Studies, 57, pp.9-36.

Stark, J., 2015. Product lifecycle management. In Product lifecycle management (Volume 1) (pp. 1-29). Springer, Cham.