Identifying the needs of consumer groups and developing products that satisfy those needs is essential when creating a marketing strategy. Successful product development begins with a clear understanding of fundamental product concepts.

The product concept is the basis on which many of the marketing plan decisions are made. When relating the information in this chapter to the development of your marketing plan, consider the following:

1. Using Figure 10.2 as a guide, create a matrix of the current product mix for your company.

2. Discuss how the profitability of your product will change as it moves through each of the phases of the product life cycle.

3. Create a brief profile of the type of consumer who is likely to represent each of the product adopter categories for your product.

4. Discuss the factors that could contribute to the failure of your product. How will you define product failure?

Figure 10.2: