cHAPTER 10 • BRANd ANd PROducT
dEcISIONS IN GLOBAL MARKETING333economy.
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As it turned out, the resulting models—the Chevrolet Silhouette (United States, Opel
Sentra (Germany, and Vauxhall Sintra (United Kingdom)—met with only limited success in their respective markets. The lesson It is one thing to formulate a global strategy it is quite another thing to execute it successfully!
Other
design-related costs, whether incurred by the manufacturer or the end user, must also be considered.
Durability and
quality are important product characteristics that must be appropriate for the proposed market. In
the United States and Europe, many car buyers do not wish to incur high service bills. Thus, the new Ford Focus was designed to be less expensive to maintain and repair. For example, engine removal takes only 1.5 hours, roughly half the time required to remove the engine in the discontinued Escort.
In addition, body panels are bolted together rather than welded, and the rear signal lights are mounted higher so they are less likely to be broken in minor parking lot mishaps.
The International
New-Product DepartmentAs noted previously, a high volume of information flow is required to scan the horizon
for new- product opportunities, and considerable effort is subsequently required to screen these opportunities to identify viable candidates for product development. The best organizational design for addressing these requirements is a new-product department. Managers in such a department engage in several activities. First, they ensure that all relevant information sources are continuously tapped for new-product ideas. Second, they screen these ideas to identify appropriate candidates for investigation. Third, they investigate and analyze these selected new-product ideas. Finally, they ensure that the organization commits resources to the most promising new-product candidates and is continuously involved in an orderly program of new-product introduction and development on a worldwide basis.
With the enormous number of possible new products, most companies establish screening grids to enable them to focus on the most appropriate ideas for investigation. The following questions are relevant to this task:
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