Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

10. Product Management
    and New−Product
    Development

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

Product Management and New-Product Development 299

299

Consumer packaged goods

companies, like Nabisco, usually

assign brand managers who are

responsible for individual

products. However, when there

are a number of products in the

same product category there is

often a higher-level manager who

ensures that the marketing

program for the whole category

is effective.

3M Sticks to Its Focus on Innovation

Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M) is fast and

successful in spinning out new products. This isn’t just

by chance. 3M’s top executive set an objective that 30

percent of sales should come from products that didn’t

exist four years ago. You see the emphasis on innovation

in even the quickest visit to 3M’s website (www.3m.com).

For example, current 3M innovations include radiant light

film (for uses ranging from graphical signage to glittery

toys), elastomers (which seal in aggressive chemicals in

high-temperature settings), and electrostatic fibers (that

filter dust out of heating vents). You can see why 3M

says, “we are always new.”

3M motivates innovation by staying close to cus-

tomers, rewarding new-product champions, and

sharing ideas among divisions. Teams from market-

ing, operations, and R&D screen new-product

concepts for the ones with the highest profit poten-

tial. Then everyone works to bring the best ones to

market fast. 3M’s Scotch-Brite Never Rust Wool Soap

Pads show how this approach can succeed. Con-

sumers told 3M marketing researchers that they

wanted an improved soap pad. Ordinary steel wool

pads leave rust stains on sinks and tiny metal splin-

ters in dishpan hands. 3M screens new products for

their environmental impact, so the R&D people devel-

oped a pad using plastic fibers from recycled plastic

bottles. Experts from 3M’s abrasives division figured

out how to coat the fibers with fine abrasives and

biodegradable soap. Further marketing research

refined the shape of the pads, and test markets evalu-

ated details of the marketing plan. For example, tests

confirmed that consumers liked the colorful package

made from recycled paper and would pay more for

Never Rust pads than they did for Brillo.

The managers varied the marketing plan for differ-

ent countries. In mature markets such as the U.S. and

Brazil where steel wool pads already had a large con-

sumer base, the objective was to capture share. In

Japan, where steel wool is not commonly used, the

objective was to pioneer the market and attract new

customers. In a firm renowned for innovation, the

launch of Never Rust pads was one of 3M’s most

profitable ever.

3M is also serious about how its innovations affect

consumer welfare. When managers learned that

traces of a chemical in 3M’s Scotchgard fabric protec-

tor might persist in the environment, they didn’t wait

for scientists to do more tests. They voluntarily pulled

the popular product off the market— before they even

knew if R&D could find a substitute chemical.^33

http://www.

mhhe.

com/

fourps

coordinates the efforts and integrates the marketing strategies for different products

into an overall plan.

The activities of product managers vary a lot depending on their experience and

aggressiveness and the company’s organizational philosophy. Today companies are

emphasizing marketing experience—because this important job takes more than aca-

demic training and enthusiasm. But it is clear that someone must be responsible for

developing and implementing product-related plans—especially when a company

has many products.^34