IBMgmt Transcripts For Week 11 - HGU

BRANDING:

To succeed in branding one must understand the needs and wants of customers and prospects. Need to do this by integrating one's brand strategies through the company at every point of public contact.A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It's important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building brand. After all brand is the source of a promise to consumer. It's a foundational piece in marketing communication and one do not want to be without.
The Objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

Delivers the message clearly
Confirms your credibility
Connects your target prospects emotionally
Motivates the buyer
Concretes User Loyalty


GLOBAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT:

There is a growing trend among companies to develop new products by tapping into expertise and resources in multiple countries, both within and outside their own firms. Realizing that products may be designed with the world market in mind, (Not just a region, or National markets) companies like Intel, TI, IBM, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, Pfizer, Nestle, P&G etc. are bringing personnel together, physically and/or electronically, from distant sites into global new product development teams. This global teams are a relatively new phenomenon, constituting the next wave of corporate development. A recent survey of firms found that nearly 75% are using global teams for a range of tasks, and almost two-thirds claim these teams have led to innovations in product and service offerings. Some major trends which contribute to the growing use of global teams are:

1. Increasing cost of new product development, thus favoring spreading innovation costs among several business units.
2. Shortening new product life cycles which is forcing companies to introduce innovations faster and better.
3. Rising technological competencies in countries outside the traditional triad. India is now the second largest exporter of software programs.


LOCATION OF R & D ACTIVITIES:

1. Past tendency to keep activities centrally located with parent corporation headquarters.
2. Using foreign based resources improves ability to compete successfully at international level.
3. Outsourcing shortens product development cycle time.
4. Determine by the existence of specific skills.


REASONS FOR R & D INVESTMENTS ABROAD:

1. To aid technology transfer from parent to subsidiary.
2. To develop new and improved products specifically for foreign markets.
3. To develop new products and processes for application in world markets of the firm.
4. To generate new technology.