This week’s marketing questions are:
- What is ATAR – why is it an important tool for sales management?
In Chapter 11, ATAR model is used to by sales management to determine forecasting market shares (Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., 2015, p. 262). It helps to discover not just who might purchase a new product, but estimate how many might actually repurchase said product for the long run. The formula is the following: MS = T x R x AW x AV
- MS = Market Share.
- T long run trial rate – the % of those who will try the product once.
- R = % of repeat purchases among those who have tried the product.
- AW = % awareness.
- AV = % availability (Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., 2015, p. 267).
The team needs to understand the current market share and new market share to know how many customers will actually purchase the item. This answer will help determine if it is worthwhile even moving forward designing and manufacturing the new product. This can be accomplished with what-if analysis between the best vs. worst case scenarios. There are several techniques to calculate used in forecasting, one being the diffusion of innovation by evaluating who will want to new innovation as to who are the early adopters vs. those who buy in later once the product has been proven to work and benefits them (Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., 2015, p. 269). There are problems with forecasting, but for best practices: forecast what you know, approve situations, not numbers, use low-cost development and marketing, and go ahead with good forecasts, but be prepared to handle risks (Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., 2015, p. 275-280).
- What is VOC? Why is it so critical to the success of a new product?
The Voice of the Customer (VOC) is defined as a, “complete set of customer wants and needs, expressed in the customer’s own language, organized the way the customer thinks about, uses, and interacts with the product…,and prioritized by the customer in terms of importance and performance,- in other words current satisfaction with existing alternatives” (Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., 2015, p. 302). It involves listening not just to loyal customers, but to the average ones, as well as, the non-customer’s current likes and dislikes to find the outcome they want in the future of a product (Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., 2015, p. 305). The VOC is critical to the success of a new product so that the Quality Function Development (QFD) of the product comes from the customer (Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., 2015, p. 305). The house of quality is (HOQ) is based on the customer’s attributes, which is used to generate new concepts to meet the customer’s needs (p. 306). this protocol is to communicate the product’s output and benefits by keeping the team aligned with the time of product deliverables (Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., 2015, p. 312).
CMSWire.com (2018) author David Roe explained the 9 Challenges To Successful Voice of the Customer and the fact that it is often overlooked by using technology product to ensure customer engagement is better, when in fact it often does not (Roe, D., 2018). I agree with him that we must utilize the VOC throughout the entire company because it is your employees that create, shape, and understand the customers most, not just product development.
This week’s reading reminds me of a famous innovation quote, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Most often than not many fail because they do not value the customer’s needs.
References:
Crawford, C. M. & Benedetto, C. A. D., (2015). New Products Management. (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGaw-Hill Education
Roe, D., (2018, March 1). 9 challenges to successful voice of the customer. Retrieved on April 15, from https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/9-challenges-to-successful-voice-of-the-customer-strategies/
Sandra Wisor 
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