Session One

in our first lecture we learned about the roles and responsibilities which in summary ended up as 7 bullet points:

Target specific markets

Develop products they want

Promote your products

Place your products appropriately

Price your products to sell

Add value and services

Monitor performance of your product

What is meant by product?

A product is something that we do, what we make, what we create.

Which i believe in essence are major factors in industry that most designers would not even consider which makes me happy to be learning about E&I on this course rather than finding out the hard way in the real world were a lot more money and reputation is at stake.

I learned a lot about the clients in this lecture, about their reaction to brands and products, what people want, what they need, what needs to be changed in society etc.

We were asked to define the term of a few things:

Core product - Which is basically a product in which the soul of the company/ industry relies on it being sold i.e companies with products which are mass produced such as a brand of food perhaps.

Tangible product - "Tangible goods are merchandise that you can put your hands on. Stuff like jewelry, computers, clothing or even CD's are all tangible products.

When you go shopping in a store, everything you place in your shopping cart would be tangible goods. You can also shop online and add real products to your shopping cart there too. As long as something is shipping to you it will be a tangible good.

On the other side of this are Intangible goods which are products that cannot be seen or touched. Things like domain names or computer programs are intangible goods. Even music you download from the web is considered intangible even though if you buy the CD it would be tangible."

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_tangible_and_intangible_goods_and_services

I found this link appropriate in allowing me to find out what tangible and in-tangible products actually are.

Augmented product - These products are to do with brand and colour and consist of items such as t-shirts, shorts, equipment etc and brands such as Nike, Adidas and Fred Perry etc

We also learned about placement! which in this tone is to do with where the product is sold, its price in delivery and what competition is in that place, i.e. apple mac store next to a Pc world.

Features and Benefits are a major factor to take into consideration for the wholesale of the product, a good location is needed so it is convenient for the buyers, customers will not want to be traveling to a Tesco by Stone Henge when they live in the Yorkshire.

Internationally - will the products sell world wide? will this be cost beneficial to the company? Would it be cheaper to sell in Europe because of the exchange rate changing so often? France? North America? How much will it cost to post products? Plane? Drivers? Boats? How long will it take to arrive? How much would the product have to be sold for to make a profit on the above?

An overview of questions which the answers to will change depending on the economy at the range of time.

Promotion - What people read, where they go, what they hear. Products need to be as cheap as possible. People need to know it exists, advertising. even discounts on the product to make it seem like a bargin. even peak time, what events are coming up? christmas? is it seasonal? do they celebrate such holidays or do they have others. What are their religious beliefs. Will it offend? etc

This whole lecture makes me consider every thing i put on a design sheet as it could be seen out in the real world and will protect me from getting in trouble for offence even if it was not intentional i.e. the french and the two fingered swear word. (history lesson - the English cut the French's f-off fingers because in the war it was what they shot their bow and arrows with.