THE CONCEPT OF A PERFECT PRODUCT I recall vividly how the concept of A Perfect Product registered in my mind.

Back in 2002, just a year after the advent of GSM in Nigeria, my mum had a Nokia 3510i mobile phone. Now, dont beat me yet, cast your mind back to that time and you will agree with me that the phone was a super mobile phone - Downloadable polyphonic ringtones, GPRS, coloured screen display, and of course MMS etc. At the time I thought and actually looked forward to a 5 year time frame which would berth a mobile phone that I anticipated as the perfect product. My expectations were quite simple: Nokia would in time release a mobile phone with features that will satisfy all its buyers, by building continuously on the current success and features of the products of the day. And so what happened? Was I wrong all this while or did Nokia fail to carry out what I thought was an elementary marketing decision? I think I was wrong, but you really cannot say that I was wrong either. I guess I was a naf. The concept of a perfect product, however bogus it may appear is a realistic target for the world of marketing. It will in turn eventually become a title worthy of more concrete study. At this point a definition of a perfect product becomes necessary. Here is my definition of a perfect product: a product with the ability to meet and surpass the expectations of ALL individuals in its identified target market - For all purposes and intent, the product being specific and not a generalized product. S/N 1 2 3 4 SPECIFIC PRODUCT Nokia C2-01 Blackberry 9800/iphone 4 Toyota Camry 2010 Breitling Windrider Watch GENERALISED PRODUCT Mobile phone Smartphone Car Timepiece

Unlike a generalised product, a specific product maintains an open market because it allows for competition, fair pricing and all the advantages of a non-monopolistic market. Should we favour a generalised product, we would then have to face a situation where for example, all car buyers will have only one option to purchase from.

The unique challenges presented by a perfect product will be better appreciated by an individual with a fine understanding of the rigours of identifying an appropriate target for a product. Target market identification is such a herculean task on its own, and to be considered successful and useful it must identify a segment that is: i. Definable: the market segment must be describable by a degree of homogeneity. In addition, it is also useful to be able to measure the market size and define the boundaries of the segment. ii. iii. iv. Sizeable: is the segment large enough and can it produce the required turnover and profit for the organisation? Reachable: there must be a way of reaching the segment both effectively and efficiently. Relevant: this is considered the most important test for any described segment. It cannot be considered in isolation from the other criteria as there is no point in describing a relevant segment that cannot be reached, definable or sizeable. Add to the above, Segmentation variables: i. ii. iii. Characteristics of the buyer: demographic, geographic, psychographic and lifestyle. Behavioural segmentation Benefit

And many more, depending on your abilities and know how. Yet, the concept of a perfect product presents a far reaching challenge that is capable of jeopardising all efforts expended into the process of target market identification recall that for a product to be perfect it must meet and surpass the expectations of ALL individuals in its target market. To drive home the concept of a perfect market, let us play out a simple illustration thus: A new mobile phone manufacturing company announced its intent to become the number one Smartphone manufacturer worldwide. In a bid to make this a reality, the company recruited a group of seasoned marketers to be actively involved in the process of the formulation of a perfect Smartphone from the product formulation phase down to the actual target marketing

and finally, sales. The group is expected to work with renowned experts in the field of Smartphone technology this is to allow them include certain buyers expected features they discovered from previous market studies. In the brief sent out to the marketers, the company makes one simple demand: FOR THIS PRODUCT TO BE CONSIDERED A SUCCESS, ALL INDIVIDUALS IN THE IDENTIFIED TARGET MARKET MUST PURCHASE ONE OF THE SMARTPHONES. i.e. the success of the product will be based not just on 100% sale of its production but on 100% acquisition by the target market identified. I expect that by now the realities of the challenge of the perfect product will be clear to you, especially if you are a member of the marketing team. I tried to do a simple search for a perfect product and came up with these two interesting ones: a. ...It hasn't been fundamentally improved upon for 1,000 years. Few other products in the world match it for reach and purity of function. It's cheap, transportable, sharable....offers universal and timeless appeal across all nationalities, religions, races, creeds, politics, classes, education levels. No other product you can name matches the book across the efficiency/cost/intimacy/experience matrix. It's flawless. By: Mark Morford (www.markmorford.com) I like Marks observation. Crisp and intelligent, but I am quick to dispel it because it refers to book as a generalised product, as against our use of a specific product.

b. The perfect product has the following attributes: 1. Fulfills(sic) a need or want 2. Has either niche market appeal or mass-market appeal 3. Has at least a 2:1 margin; 5:1 or higher is optimal 4. Has a high perceived value 5. Must be replenished or repurchased by the customer often 6. Is easily upsold and cross-sold

7. Has a related back-end product By: Ryan P. Allis, 20, is the author of Zero to One Million Let us take a closer look at Ryans list, and then try to rearrange them into some of our aforementioned considerations for a successful segmentation. 1. Fulfills(sic) a need or want - DEFINABLE 2. Has either niche market appeal or mass-market appeal - RELEVANT 3. Has at least a 2:1 margin; 5:1 or higher is optimal - ------------4. Has a high perceived value - RELEVANT 5. Must be replenished or repurchased by the customer often - REACHEABLE 6. Is easily upsold and cross-sold - BENEFIT 7. Has a related back-end product BENEFIT Did you observe that I omitted item no 3 i.e. Has at least a 2:1 margin; 5:1 or higher is optimal? Actually, that was deliberate for two reasons: 1. I assume, strongly too, that Ryan was referring to a 2:1 sales margin. He further said a 5:1 margin or higher is optimal. These appear to be high margins, but do they meet the primary target set by the company in the above illustration? NO 2. I decided to exclude what I considered the most important singular factor the quest for the design of a perfect product: PRICING. Once manufactured, the perfect product is expected to be expensive compared to that of the competition. Let us reconsider the previous illustration to reconstruct the stage of pricing in the marketing teams decision making: Basically, in order to manufacture a perfect product in the form of a Smartphone, we should strongly consider merging the features of the current leading Smartphones in the current market, laid side-by-side with the demands of the identified target market. What we would be doing here is simply: A. On one hand, we collate the features of the leading products in our intending market, assuming here that the manufacturers of these products have carried

out a comprehensive, effective and efficient market segment study and analysis before production. This will provide us with a fair idea of what our target market will demand for. In addition, we should also have a good idea of choice of pricing system of our competitor. B. On the other hand, we carry out a fresh market analysis of our own and assume we never embarked on (A) above. This is to ensure that we dont have a premeditated result. This will provide us with a good pricing structure of our own. Note that in the present market environment and structure we would have to consider at least four (4) different competitions in the Smartphone market (e.g. RIM(Blackberry), Apple(iPhone), Samsung, LG, HTC). Hence, even though it is not express, our pricing structure is expected to present a higher price compared to that of our competitors since we intend to incorporate each of their products strength into our own product. For all purpose all intent, let us assume that we are able to effect a similar pricing structure to that of our competitors, so as to eliminate the challenge of overpricing, would that be enough to make our product a perfect product? POINT OF DISCUSSION: If the marketing team is able to present a product at about the same price with that of the competition, with an all inclusive feature that merges all the strengths of the competitors, assuming that all other marketing tools such as promotion, advertisement, branding etc are effectively engaged, would that be enough to make the new product a PERFECT PRODUCT?