Question

cenario You are the global marketing vice president at Dyson. You have been asked to attend a meeting with James Dyson, the company's founder. Dyson's CEO and the head of Dyson's New Product Innovation department will also be in attendance. "Thanks for meeting with me today," James says. "Market intelligence has shown that our major competitors—Hoover, Shark, and Bissell—are all developing new cordless vacuum cleaners with a longer battery life than what's currently available." James Dyson looks to you: "I need you to participate in a new cross-functional product development team that will research the feasibility of creating a cordless vacuum cleaner that works for one hour on a single charge. We also need to know if there's even a market for this type of vacuum," he says. "We envision that this new vacuum will be used primarily in the home, but keep in mind, we want to be able to adapt it easily and cheaply for light commercial use. One way of doing this is by using swappable battery packs." "Have an actionable marketing plan ready for me in three weeks," James says. You know that to give the CEO the most thorough report, you'll need to conduct an internal analysis of Dyson and an environmental scan for the new vacuum cleaner. You'll need to have a detailed plan for identifying marketing opportunities, and you'll need to research the home and commercial vacuum cleaner industry, market trends, and Dyson's major global competition.

Your financial analysis should include average unit cost, average unit price, number of units per batch, any outsourcing costs, a breakeven analysis, a sales forecast, and an expense forecast (including marketing and sales expenses). In addition, explain your schedule for implementation, the controls you intend to put in place, and how you intend to proceed (i.e., contingency plans) when your benchmarks are not met.

Milestone 6: Submit a one page document explaining your financial analysis and implementation for the startup of a new Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Answer 1

Answer

The question that i gather from the above paragragh is "what is dyson's value proposition?". We can derive this once the complete scopping of the opportunity is complete. For that we need to understand the following points: 1. What is the universal set for the cordless battery - Home and Commercial use. 2. Technical Specifications: Life of battery, Size of battery, will it be a portable and easy to carry, will it be bulky, how long will it have to be charged etc. 3. What are the market trends: Are consumers prefering cordless vaccumm cleaners? If yes, what are the Features, Advantages and Benefits that the consumers look for and derive from cordless vaccum cleaners that work for an hour on a single charge. For eg: Wireless so no need to plug and unplug for vacuming the entire house in an hour, Convinience, etc. What is the competition offering? Is it selling it as a "Convinience" product or a New and Innovative technology? What are the 4 Ps that have been developed as part of the marketing strategy - Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Once this is studied and laid down clearly then you will be able to arrive at the value proposition. A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered to the consumer. What does the product / brand stand for in the consumers mind and what is the value that the consumer will experince. According to me the value proposition for cordless vacuum cleaners if " Experience the conviniece of battery operated wireless vacuuming for an hour" . It needs to be a simple statement that will be communicated as part of the advertising and marketing efforts.

For Example:

Average Unit Cost = $300	300
Average Unit Price = $700	700
Number of Units per Batch = Economic Batch Quantity (EBQ) =	1250
Cost of Outsourcing =	$115
Break even Analysis:
Sales Forecast: 1250*700=	875000
Forecasted Expenses:
Sales cost for selling the goods	75
Salary	2675
Sales and Marketing Expenses	105
Other expenses	25
Total expenses contributing to the unit cost of $300	2880
General and office Admin Expenses	1529
Tax on the payroll = 25% of Salary	668.75
Eearnings Before Interest and Tax	867042.25

This can be launched and implemented just before the Christmas season of the holiday season to attract attention and awareness

The schedule includes an initial pull marketing advert campaigns for 3 months, big bill boards with watch this space, and Radio and TV adverts

The 6 months can be a severe advert and marketing campaigns till the product climbs the growth stage and reaches the saturation stage

When the bench marks are not met, the incontinency plans would be to pause and redesign the development stage and re launch the sales campaign.