Question

Does Target retail company product mix make sense from a product manager's perspective?

Answer 1

The product mix shows the various types of goods that are sold by a firm –it shows the various goods available in the market—lets say , different types of shoes, or it could show the various goods, mostly that are related to each other , sold by the retail firm—for example, a shop selling note books might also sell pens, geometric instruments, plain white sheets , school bags , pencil holders, erasers and so on.

Though it has to be observed that some stores purely only a single type of commodity – for example , a store selling shoes may sell various branded as well as non branded variety of shoes and no other related items like socks, polish and so on.

The marketing mix is a combination of different that influence the product –right from its production to its consumption—final consumption. The producer who desire to meet the consumer’s needs must do enough research on the sensitivity of the market towards their firm’s product, they must also keenly observe the competitors’ policies and must adhere to a policy of accurately meeting the customer requirements. The development of an efficient cost strategy nor the manufacture of a high quality product alone will ensure that the firm’s product is able to meet the customer satisfaction as well as supersede the performance of its substitutes in the market.

The firm must be aware of the policies of its retailers who are ultimately in touch with its final consumers. The target retail firm’s product mix is inevitably of greater importance for the product manager , since it will help the manager decide upon the best strategies and make improvements in the product if necessary.

The manager will also have to understand the pricing strategies of the competing firms and hence , in order to gauge their competitors’ and their performances in the market the product manager must be able to effectively be aware of the strategy adopted by the retail outlet of the firm’s product.

The organization must ensure easy accessibility of its product to its retailers and ultimately its consumers. This requires a thorough analysis of the strategy of selling adopted by the retail company. The stage of performance of the product –whether it is a branded product that has its own clientele, whether it’s a product that has many competitors—or substitutes in the market , whether it’s a good that has to be jointly used along with another –like a cell phone and its charger or battery, or finally whether the product is a new entrant in the market and needs to establish its identity , the target retail company’s selling strategy is of importance to the product manager.

The product manager has to accurately sense the needs of the consumers of his firm’s product –this will help in forecasting the sales of the product accurately and will help the organization develop a effective strategy to sustain its product performance. If the target retail company is selling many products which are close substitutes to the product in question then a closer review is needed of the product mix of the target retail firm in order to ensure that the firm in question does not lose its market share to its competitors merely because of an ineffective product mix strategy adopted by the retail firm. The product manager can decide in producing and enhancing the quality of the product after an in depth analysis of the product mix policy of the retail firm.

However in case of certain products like pharmaceutical drugs, laboratory instruments or instruments needed for medical operations where there is a great level of specialization might find it easier to gauge the target retail firm’s product mix strategy but in case of a situation where there are many products and many of which are closely related , the complexity of the retail firm’s product mix has to be analysed .

This analysis will help the product manager to develop the suitable strategies and make the necessary changes in the process of production paving way for innovations in the product and improving its performance in the market.