Launch of a Precision Toothbrush
Task 1. What are the arguments for launching Precision as (a) a niche and (b) a mainstream brand?
A precision toothbrush is one that is of the highest quality ever and best serves its intended purposes of particle removal and plaque removal in teeth. Many arguments arise as to why a precision toothbrush should be launched as both a niche and a mainstream brand. A niche is a segment of a whole say a market to which a product being launched is targeted to reach. A market niche would be therefore said to be a gap or an opportunity in the market that has not been utilized. A mainstream brand on the other hand is one that the public views as normal to use or that the public views to be used as a norm. This paper intends to give the arguments as to why precision toothbrushes should be launched as both a niche and a mainstream brand.
A precision toothbrush is made with the highest technology to ensure that it is the best in food particle and plaque removal in teeth (Lakshmi, Marwah, Chaturvedi, & Mishra, 2018). It is therefore in this perspective that it should be launched as a niche for it can meet the needs of every member of the public as far as teeth hygiene is concerned. The brush is made with high technology making it to occupy a niche in the market that no other toothbrush has occupied before. It can therefore be sold in all shop outlets including drugs and food stores (Worthington, Kennedy, & Jimenez, 2017). Positioning the precision toothbrush as a niche gives the brush a competitive advantage over the other available brushes since its uniqueness and super quality features will automatically give it a greater preference for use by the customers. This is because a niche is a gap or opportunity which has not yet been utilized (Lakshmi, at.al 2018). Utilizing the opportunity through the manufacturing of a product that best suits the gap then positions the product in a better position to better compete with the available market competitors. In this case, launching the precision toothbrush as a niche allows it to better compete well with the available toothbrush brands.
where the precision toothbrush is to be launched as a mainstream brand, the Colgate Palmolive company has to make sure that it makes some adjustments have to be put in place to promote the sale of the brand. The product will have the most product appeal to the customers than any other available toothbrush. Merchandisers and brand ambassadors would facilitate product promotion and thus the sales would shoot with a great percentage. Lead times will have to be reduced to a period of not more than two weeks to ensure that there is an adequate supply of the product to the market (Worthington, at.al, 2017). Launching the product as a mainstream product is advantageous because whenever the consumers consider it normal to use a particular product, they tend to prefer it to other competing brands. The customers would then in turn normalize purchasing the product and thus a bigger market acceptance of the brand which would lead to increased sales and productivity to the manufacturing firm (Amani, Vorobei, & Razumova, 2018). The increased sales however will come after much inputs in the side of product promotion by the manufacturing firm, Colgate Palmolive Company.
Task 2. What recommendations would you make to Steinberg? Include a pro forma/profit and loss forecast for the Precision Toothbrush (incl. cannibalization) under the niche and mainstream scenarios
Regarding the above responses on how the product should be launched, I would recommend to Steinberg that she should launch the product as a niche as fewer costs would be required (Lakshmi, at.al 2018). This is because launching a product as a niche one tries to come up with a product that caters to the needs of the market better than the existing to occupy the gap (Mohammad, & Arfat, 2016). This means that, if one’s product best serves a given need which the existing products never served, the new product will face no competition while entering the market. Products compete when they serve the same purpose, so when a product is designed to serve a purpose that has never been served before it would meet little or no threats in entering the market.
On the other hand, launching the product as a mainstream product requires many inputs. It would require brand restructuring, improvements, and product promotions to a large extend. This is because there is a need to convince the customers why they should buy your product and not competitors’ products. Launching a product as the mainstream brand would also result in cannibalization (Amani, at.al 2018). This is the reduction of market share and sales volume of a product as a result of the introduction of a new but similar product by the same producer. To conquer the competition, producers will tend to make product improvements in the existing products or coming up with new but similar products with modifications that result in cannibalization (Mohammad, at.al 2016). All these activities are expenses to the manufacturing organization and will have the impact of reducing the amount of the net profits. This goes against the desires of any given producer for they only dream of how to make huge profits from the sales.
The excel document attached would be used to show the profit and loss forecast of the precision toothbrush both when launched as a niche and as a mainstream brand. The figures are approximations and not real figures. The forecasts are meant to show how launching the product as a mainstream brand entails many costs than when the precision toothbrush is launched as a niche. It is presumed that in both cases the advertising and product development expenses are constant. The additional costs when the precision toothbrush is launched as a mainstream product involve the cannibalization cost and product promotion costs. The product promotion costs involved include the cost of paying merchandisers and brand ambassadors, the cost of giving away free samples, and the cost of personal selling. From the research, it is worthwhile noting that launching the precision toothbrush as a niche is more advantageous to a firm than launching it as a mainstream brand. Steinberg is therefore recommended to launch the precision toothbrush as a niche rather than a mainstream brand to earn many profits from the sale.
References
Amani, W., Vorobei, P. S., & Razumova, A. A. (2018). Inorganic components of indigenous toothpastes produced by OJSC «Modum» and toothpastes produced Colgate-Palmolive company.
Lakshmi, V., Marwah, N., Chaturvedi, Y., & Mishra, P. (2018). Evaluation of brushing techniques and toothbrush grips among rural and urban children. Power, 14, 13.
Mohammad, K., & Arfat, A. (2016). FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF FMCG COMPANIES IN INDIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN COLGATE PALMOLIVE AND DABUR INDIA LIMITED. Editorial Board, 5(6), 1.
Worthington, B. G., Kennedy, S., & Jimenez, E. J. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,554,641. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.