Product Development and Management Strategies

The chapter seeks to discuss and describe the concept of product from the marketing perspective, how companies come about new product, product development options, and the various strategies available to a company to manage new and existing products. It is a conceptual paper which reviews relevant literatures from various sources. In essence, the proposed chapter will be divided into three main sections. Section 1 will introduce the concept of product, its meaning, and core components from the marketing point of view. It will also contain discussion on the various connotations of the term product, what constitute a new product, and new product adoption. Section 2 will dwell on the options available to a company on how to come up with new products including mergers, acquisition, and licensing, franchising, and proactive new product development. It will also explain the two product development strategies that companies adopt in the market place. The last section will discuss the product management strategies available to a firm either from the product life cycle way or the individual product management strategies or both. At the end, conclusions and the general context of the paper are drawn.