New Product Development at GaGa’s 

1. With regard to consumer appeal, compare and contrast the GaGa’s brand with the Sherbetter name of the product. Why did Jim King and his wife choose the GaGa’s brand over the use of Sherbetter as the brand of the product? 

The brand name of the company’s product is critical in determining how the consumers will perceive the product. It can either promote the image of the company or ruin it. Jim King and his wife are trying their best to make a brand memorable to the consumers. Such a strategy puts trust to the customers who buy the product. Precisely, GaGa’s offered its customers bars and pints of Sherbet (GaGa Gourmet Frozen Dessert & Ice Cream, n.d). The company’s mission was to draw individuals into comprehending the value they get with the product and out of the product. Besides, with Sherbetter, the customers did not have knowledge about it hence Jim King decided to teach their customers about it and the benefits they will derive from it.

They choose GaGa over Sherbetter because the name is appealing and also they wanted the customers to understand the product well. Moreover, Jim King and his wife would love to see their product compete well in the market by being reliable to the customers. It will also be significant to the company if it creates loyalty to the buyers. They are trying to show the world how much they care about them. Similarly, they would have loved to get a brand that would cover all marketing elements and guarantee a healthy relationship, identity, personality and trust to the customers. Therefore, they made their product memorable and gave it a different personality. GaGa’s brand was also marketed differently than Sherbetter and customers were able to differentiate it from the rest. It was from the name GaGa that Jim King and his wife were able to create a memorable product.

3. Type the following phrase into your website browser: “Gaga Gourmet Frozen Dessert and Ice Cream.” On the results page, identify retailer websites and social media websites that feature the Gaga’s brand and product offerings. Explore these resources and identify a single Gaga Gourmet product offering. Discuss the following topics related to your chosen Gaga Gourmet product offering:

·         Product Features

·         Product Benefits

·         Product Packaging

·         Product Labeling

·         Trademark

My results after searching “GaGa Gourmet Frozen Dessert and Ice Cream” included the following. First, I only found stores such as Publix, Whole Foods, Stop and Shop and King Kullen that also offers GaGa products and I did not find much of different competitors. The site provided information on a brief history about the company, the location, and the products. However, the GaGa Inc. has a Facebook page, a twitter and also an Instagram account. The company offers its customers a variety of Sherbetter products and one of them is GaGa Gourmet Raspberry. The website provides a vivid explanation about the product’s history and the stores you can find them (GaGa Gourmet Frozen Dessert & Ice Cream, n.d). Similarly, the product benefits consumers since they are made from natural ingredients and they have a low fat level (160 calories and 3.5 grams of fat) (GaGa Gourmet Frozen Dessert & Ice Cream, n.d). GaGa’s enrich the consumers with vitamins that other flavors do not have.

The product’s labeling is simple and brightly colored making it stand out from the rest on the shelves. Therefore, the consumers are likely to remember and know the product they are buying from the way it is labeled. The packaging is simple and easy and comes in pint size containers. Additionally, the packaging is up to standard and products are kept frozen and fresh all the time. Ultimately, the trademark is memorable and it is their own. From the trademark, customers are likely to know the product since the name stands out.

Step 1: Highlight your multiple choice answer in yellow.

Step 2: Write a 100 (or more) word discussion in defense of each of your answers to the multiple choice questions using research from your textbook to help substantiate your understanding of products and the new product development process. Apply APA style referencing in your writing. 

1. What type of consumer product is the Sherbetter bar?

a. Shopping Product

b. Convenience Product

c. Specialty Product

d. Unsought Product

Sherbetter bar falls under convenience products. These are products that are purchased often, consumers take little thoughts about them and also they appeal to the larger target market (Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2014). Therefore, consumers do not need to plan before purchasing the product since it involves little considerations. GaGa Inc. has focused on increasing the production volume of Sherbetter bar since it is a convenience product and the customers routinely purchase the product. Besides, the company has an assurance of a widespread availability of the product to all its stores making it convenient for the customers to get them. The advertisement information about the product is simple and it is all about reminding the consumers of its availability.

2. When GaGa’s developed Sherbetter Bars, what type of new product was that?

a. Repositioned product

b. Improvement on an existing product

c. Addition to an existing product line

d. New product line

Addition to an existing product lines occurs when an organization decides to add a new product to boost its area of product offering and allow it to compete more broadly. Therefore, the company will manufacture plenty of related products to keep up with the trend and also give customers more options to choose. This will increase sales and create new business. For the case of GaGa’s, they offer pints of Sherbetter to the already existing product line that is Sherbetter bars. Such a strategy helps the company to remain in the same line of product they are offering. The company added this line of product to allow consumers to purchase from a brand they are familiar with.   

3. Performing which of the following steps in the new-product development process would have helped Jim King realize that the novelty bars and the pints of Sherbetter would not be shelved together?

a. Business Analysis

b. Development

c. Test Marketing

d. Commercialization

 

Commercialization entails introducing a new product into the market and it will help GaGa to realize that novelty bars and the pints of Sherbetter should be shelved differently. Precisely, commercialization takes into accounts stages such as the production of the product, distribution, marketing, sales and the support from the customers. If Mr. Jim King had followed well the commercialization steps, he would have determined how the products should be supplied and briefed on the expected barriers to success. Similarly, the information would have helped Mr. Jim King to realize that it was not ideal to shelve the two product side by side.

4.  At which stage of the new product development process should GaGa’s have conducted its extensive focus groups and any research it needed before putting GaGa’s Sherbetter on the shelves?

a. Idea Generation

b. Development

c. Idea Screening

d. Business Analysis

The business analysis encompasses identifying the business needs and solutions to the problems encountered during the business operations (Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2014). Therefore, GaGa’s should have conducted its extensive focus group at the business analysis stage. At this stage, the figures for products demand, cost, sales, and profit are computed. Jim King should have particularly used the product life cycle to trace the stages of development process. If they had included planning, they would have been able to research and identify the various business needs and come up with a solution. Besides, it would have helped them get researched information before arranging GaGa’s Sherbetter on the shelves. 

 

5. In what stage of the new product development process should GaGa’s have introduced Sherbetter and the companies marketing program into the market to gauge consumer reactions?

a. Test Marketing

b. Target Marketing

c. Business Analysis

d. Commercialization

For the benefit of the company, GaGa’s should have introduced Sherbetter in a Test Marketing stage to gauge the reactions from the consumers. It is a tradition of many companies to use test marketing in a situation when they are launching a new product in the market. They do so to generate ideas on how to market their products and also get an insight into the success of the product. Before, shelving the product, GaGa should have used the information from the test marketing to make changes in their marketing strategy. The test marketing results would have helped them identify what they miss in their product and the changes they should have made.

6. In what stage of the product life cycle is Sherbetter?

a.    Introduction

b.   Growth

c.    Maturity

d.   Decline

Sherbetter is in the introduction stage. At this stage, the company launches a new product, sales normally increase at a slower rate, the marketing cost is a bit higher and also the products face little competition (Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2014). The company has few businesses that sell their products hence the product is still being introduced into the largest stores in the country such Wal-Mart. Most customers are not aware of the brand name and from the company’s social media pages, there are few visits by customers. Therefore, the company is busy offering more products and target a variety of customers. Sherbetter bars target people who love to eat healthy food and particularly the young population. 

References

GaGa Gourmet Frozen Dessert & Ice Cream. (n.d). Retrieved from http://gagagourmet.com/

Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., & McDaniel, C. (2014). MKTG7. Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage.

 

 

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