New Product Dev. & Marketing – Discussion Forum 1 – replies

Discussion Forum 1: Ideas for New Products
In Discussion Forum 1, post your response to the following discussion questions. Reply to at least two classmates’ responses by the date indicated in the Course Calendar.
Describe a new product that you can imagine developing and bringing to market. (It can be a good or a service.) What is it? Why does it interest you? What existing company could integrate this product into its product line?
Answer these questions:
a. Would the development and testing of a new service differ from those of a new product? Why?
b. Is it important that a new product be closely related to a current product line? Why?
My reply –
Automated face recognition teller machine
This is a biometric facial identification machine that aids an individual in their access to services. Automated face recognition works by the comparison of given facial features against one provided in the database. Biometric recognition systems are the best, in my opinion, when it comes to security, particularly in one’s financial accounts. With this aspect, various banking institutions can implement an automated face recognition teller machine as it will enhance security both to the clients and its monetary holding measures.
Products and Services testing and development
The testing and development of a new service differ from that of a new product. Products are more accessible to the market since they are tangible, separable from the developer, and are readily displayed as opposed to services, which are intangible and inseparable from the provider, hence challenging to show the value. While products are designed, built, and delivered to various consumers as standards, the quality of service might differ from one provider to another.
New product and its relation to the current products
A newly implemented product needs to be related to the current product line. This helps customers familiarize with the new product, create brand awareness, and improve its competitive advantage. Secondly, it allows consumers to link the product to the company hence increasing its popularity. Lastly, it enables the product to gather the customers’ goodwill and trust built by the company in that product line.
Please respond to the 2 classmates
Classmate 1 – Miguel “Mick” Flores

In today’s environment with COVID and social distancing I was thinking of bringing a homeschool learning service to parents who want to ensure their kids have a safe environment to learn in a small group setting (3 to 10 kids) during COVID. According to the NY times parents are already organizing these so called learning PODs or pandemic PODs within their community. I’m seeing first hand with my middle and high school kids that local school districts do not have an effective plan to keep our kids safe. Schools are giving parents the option to go virtual the entire year or a hybrid class/virtual learning environment. In our area, even if you opted for your child to go to class, they are doing 9 weeks virtual learning to start with and this will be reevaluated to see if they will continue to be virtual or attend the classroom.
Creating a service for POD learning could be accomplished in a few ways. My service would allow for a central area (website) that parents can search for teachers or tutors in their area willing to give their services for the grades or age based learning group. In other words if you are looking for an elementary, middle or high school age based teacher my service would be able to connect parents to the right teacher(s). Additionally, it would allow certified teachers that are not willing to teach in schools for the fear of COVID or teachers that are looking for work or any other certified teachers willing to commit to the POD learning environment a chance to post their services and resume for parents to review. My goal for this service is to provide a one stop shop for parents and teachers. A place to apply for work and a place to view and select the right teacher for your child.
This service interests me because at this time there are really no known services that provide this. From what I’ve seen in the papers and in the news is it’s strictly parents that are putting this together with their neighbors. Plus this isn’t something that has taken hold nationwide. There are however existing business that could integrate this service with their current business. For instance, there are tutoring services that offer after school services. These businesses could expand their service to full time teaching vice a few hours after school tutoring. They would already have a list of teachers that they use, they would now have to see who they could get to work full time during the school year. The infrastructure is already in place, they would just need to grow to accommodate the current situation of COVID and virtual learning. The great part about a business that already provides tutoring services is that they would be able to downsize and just go back to after school services once we get back to normal. In other words, no virtual learning or home school but actual classroom settings. For an established business that means there is no overhead cost change, and as a matter of fact they may even gain more customers. For families that utilized their full time POD learner service they may be more inclined to use that particular teacher in the future for their child if they felt a personal connection or saw results in their child’s education.
To answer some of the questions from the discussion forum:
a. Would the development and testing of a new service differ from those of a new product (service)? Why?
To an extent this differs slightly from other services. Currently, there are after school services that provide tutors for students. Some parents already homeschool their children. This would not involve testing because it is service that we are bringing to the market, not a good that we have to develop. School/tutoring services already exist. The goal is to bring these services and tailor it to meet the needs of the parents and students. The key to this service is successfully launching a service without any issues and creating excitement with parents and students in providing a safe learning environment in a small bubble to bubble learning environment to minimize contracting COVID. Safety for the children has to come first, not only from contracting a virus but ensuring that the teachers that our applying for those jobs have been properly vetted and thorough background checks conducted.
b. Is it important that a new product be closely related to a current product line? Why?
Having products that are closely related allows managers the opportunity to evaluate the market and research historical data of a similar product. However, similarities in a product doesn’t guarantee that a company will get a similar share of the market. You have to take into account branding of the product, loyalty of the customer to a certain brand, and pricing.
Classmate 2 – Dehra Green
Every new bride wants to be able to afford a custom designer dress for her wedding day. Unfortunately, the majority of brides to be do not have the available resources to hire Yumi Katsura to design a unique dress for this special occasion. With my new software, I combine existing products together in order to provide self-designed wedding dresses specific to the customers desires within their available budget. My new service will merge body scanning machines with customization style choices and finally, forward the unique dress specification to tailors for the finished product. There are several “online design” companies, however, none have merged these three systems together.
The first step is the modification of the existing body scanning technology that is widely used by TSA at airports all around the United States. This technology will be able to scan (three dimensional) the exact size and proportions of the customers’ body. The second step is the uploaded scan to the computer system as an avatar where the customer can choose between seven different material types, colors, bodice styles, sleeve styles, dress lengths, skirt styles, and lace. Exponentially, this would give you seven to the seventh power or more than 800,000 unique dresses. With the body scanning technology and avatar, the customer can pick and choose different items and “see” exactly what the dress will look like on their own body. The third step of this process is the submission of the final design to the tailor for the manufacturing of the dress. With this connection, collaboration, and improvement between existing technologies will provide every bride an affordable, unique dress customized exactly to the size of her body and wallet.

“Would the development and testing of a new service differ from those of a new product? Why?
The development and testing of a new service can be more challenging than the development and testing of a product because there would not be a tangible item. In the development of a new product, prototypes can be produced to specifications and those prototypes can be tested to ensure the product meets those specifications. Although both the service and the product are developed to fill a void, a service cannot be tested without launching (even within a small market) the service to the consumer.

“Is it important that a new product be closely related to a current product line? Why?
If you are an existing, established company that is branching into a new product, it would be important that the new product is closely related to current product lines to reduce the possible added cost of new equipment, raw supplies, and human capital that a new product would require. For example, in a previous job at a home building company, we had a large amount of capital invested into the automated panel machines as well as the resources required to train individuals on the proper use of these machines. If this company decided to expand its business into manufacturing a new fuel efficient automobile engine, the company would have to add costly equipment, different raw material, and new employee training.