Product Design Plays Significant Role Marketing Essay

Product design plays significant role in achieving the goals of an organization. A good product can ensure customer satisfaction, quality and low production cost. However if the quality of the product design is poor then it’s obvious that the feedback from customer also will be poor resulting lack of interest on the same. Moreover quality and cost of production will also affect if the design is poor that is the production cost will increase.

1.2 What is a product?

A product is things that are produced by the effort of labor resulting of an act or process. It can be classified either as tangible or intangible. Tangible product means a physical object that can be touch and see such as building; on the other hand intangible products are product that can only be feel that is it is a service like insurance policy.

1.3 Definitions of Product Design

Product Design is very important in production and operation management because it is the key condition as it affects acquire from the product. In other words we can say it is the transfer of intellectual wisdom, requirements and satisfy the needs of consumer on specific product

A product design is all about taking care of each detail when the process of manufacturing point starts till the finish point. It takes different aspect into account like whether the process will be efficient, safe and reliable manner; how much capable to attract targeted consumers and lower cost.

It can be depicted in the following diagram below fig 1

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The two basic steps in designing a product are:

Functional design

Production design

Functional Design

The functional design step must be practical when designing a product. Decision concerning the magnitude, how much material to be consumed, the finish point are key aspect are very important. At this stage the designer must lay more emphasis about the product itself instead of worrying about the way how it should be made. Consideration, customer appeal, cost and ease of operation and resources are the main things for functional design.

Production Design

In this stage that is production design stage the manufacturer makes adjustment regarded the introduction and new concepts for the product so as to make the production more appropriate. Standardization, modular design and simplification are some of the concepts employed in the production design stage.

Standardization – this facilitates part of the product which is similar or evens the whole product. It even cut the cost of production by eliminating the need for planning numerous product design and help the organization to work larger with fewer items of good qualities.

Modular Design – it makes construction and continuation easy as this type of design are largely used and are easy to adapt with the sub-assemblies or sections products.

Simplification – at this point adding features in the design for the product is very important and the design must be simply because it under go onto several value analysis in order to see on which part the organization must work with lower cost .

1.4 Why do we need design products?

Product design is essential for any organization as this will help to attract customers and make anything less than an excellent product strategy can be destructive to a firm. In order to maximize the potential for success top companies focus on few products and concentrate to maintain high level of quality. The strategy is to stay competitive in the market and allows customer to have a variety of choice.

In the planning process, decisions concerning the design of a product or service must be taken very carefully because a single mistake done can make the organization face from huge losses. The design of new product must be manufacture separately in order to avoid confusion from the old one.

From the research that has been done an organization must go according to the demand of consumer because from survey we are able to make new discoveries, establish new applications and this will lead to commercial application. Product design is important because it is related with the sale of the company. For example if the product is design in a good way this will obviously attract more customers and as a result this will lead to an increase in sale and revenue.

1.5 Product design related with product life cycle

Product life cycle is applied in production and operation management for product design as it shows how a product lies at different stages and which takes inputs and converts it into output by using some process. The production system applies to the process of production depending on what type of product we have to produce and volume of the process we need to produce the goods. The whole process of operation from introduction to decline of a production system is defined as the product life cycle.

A product life cycle consist of four stages namely the introduction stage, growth, maturity and finally the decline stage. Firms go through introduction, growth, maturity, high volume saturation and finally decline. The life cycle can be build into four stages to reveal four important issue areas. It can be depicted as follows in figure 1

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Introduction – it is the first stage when is product is new and has to be launch in the market. Product design is very essential in the first stage itself because design of the product plays vital role for the increase of sale. The early stage emphasize the product’s unique characteristic If people are attracted by the design of the product then it is obvious that there will be demand for that product and will survive in the market.

Growth – this refers to the increase of the product as it shows a rise in the curve. This is an indication that the product was successful in the market and it is the open where a firm/organization can make its profit and cover its production cost.

Maturity – it is the stage where a firm can make maximum profit and at this stage before the product will fall the organization must redesign its product or develop it. This is so because once it has reach the decline stage, the sale of the product will start falling and will be kick out the market.

Decline – it is the last stage of a product to survive in the market, now the product will be kick out of the market and at this point the firm will have to bear losses. However, if the organization develops the product or they redesign it then it still has change to stay in the market.

Product life cycle helps an organization to know at which stage the product lies and whether they have to innovate something new with the product or they will have to redesign it again. The demand for a product and its market acceptance generally tends to follow a predictable pattern. As a product moves through these stages it’s pricing, packaging, promotion and distribution are reevaluated and change. It is the journey from new and existing too old and dated.

1.6 Product development or product redesign

Product development refers when a company is adding new features to its product.

For example just like the mobile Nokia is adding new feature in order to make the product stay in the market. Product development undertake major when risk when the matter comes up to a new product. Before entering a new product into the market one has to do a lot of research and development so as to be able to know about the like and dislike about the consumers. We must consider each and every single details while design a product. It can computer based, paper and so on. Before launching a product onto the market the organization must bear many things in mind. For example Nokia mobile before coming up onto the market the owner has employ expert to work on this project. They have design the mobile on computer, paper and finally they have select the appropriate one and start selling it. Once a product idea surfaces, it must be shown that the product fulfill the consumer needs and that’s the existing one is no longer needed.

Moreover with the evolution of new technology we can see the products with the same feature are having different design. Let take the example of water itself, it all serves the same purpose but yet the manufacture has design it in several ways to attract people. Some people prefer to drink vital and other crystal because of the different design. The important question when we design a product is, is it demand-able, the level of quality, does it has an economic standpoint. These questions are important in order to avoid a waste of time and money and making sure that it is worth changing the product.

1.7 Advantages of product design

Product design benefits a company in several ways when the product matches with local requirements in the market. They lay emphasis on the taste, standardization, prices and the like. Some of the advantages are mention below.

Platform – it allows manufacturers to create fundamental product with unique versions for the individual markets and consumers. It reduces research and development power and enables company to launch its product. It also help to control cost compared when new product is being done.

Quality- variation is important when the product design is same level quality at all market. It also allows the firm to make a strong brand which helps to recognize the product and brand strength improves effectiveness of local campaigns.

It is a source of increased sales and better profits, more brand value, greater market share, better return on investment design as a resource for society at large.

Design as transformer- it is a resource for creating new business prospect for improving the capability to cope with changes.

Design as differentiator-it is as a source of competition on the market through customer loyalty, customer orientation, price and so on

1.8 Conclusion

The main procedure is to manage the product design from the research that has been done, new concept from brainstorming, originality, and it is the requirement to ideological design and finally detailed design. In order to ensure product design specification market research must be done so as to avoid conflict and it is related to the design of the machine. The expression and detail designs are invented based on the concept design. The device and activity can show the carrying out of the machine. Moreover the selections of material are also a key element when designing a produce as materials can affects the manufacturing process. Therefore product design is very important for any organization as sometime if the product is well design it can make the organization prospers.