Marketing Strategy
Project Introduction
Field Project Title
Convergence of products and features loading are widespread in consumer market (camera phones, print/scan/copy/fax machines etc.). When do people prefer converged products to dedicated products?
Converged Products
The definition of converged product is fairly straightforward from the project title. However we would like to explain it in a little more depth as the research would be based on this description/definition.
The idea of a converged product is different from having multiple features in the same product. When talking about multiple features, we mean features which fall under the same classification. A very simple example would be pens with multiple refills of different colors. Here some may argue that two different pens of different colors have been combined to form a single pen however this is not the definition of a converged product. Therefore it is essential that the dedicated products (which make up the converged product) have different classification.
The second point here is that the dedicated products should have independent identity in the market and should be a sellable/consumable item. If one of the dedicated products does not sell separately then it cannot make up a converged product, example LCD television having Bluetooth connectivity. Bluetooth does not sell as a standalone product but always as an added feature for other devices. Hence LCD TV + Bluetooth do not qualify as a converged product.
The third point is the functions of the dedicated products should be independently usable after combing with the other product. If the basic functionality of a product does not exist, then it would simply become a feature enhancing of the other product, for example fans are used in CPU cabinets for cooling, this is not a converged product. The fan is used to cool the SMPS and mother board of the CPU and cannot be used as a conventional fan.
We have used these guidelines in order to collect our list of converged products and also to guide the interview/surveys audience to answer the questions.
Success of converged product
The definition of success of converged product is arguably the most important in this research. Which converged product would qualify as a successful one and which ones do not? We may try to classify the list of CP (Converged products) into success and failure based on sales figures and market share etc. However this technique will induce a heavy amount of bias, for the reason that a) figures will not be available for all CP b) Figures will have to be collated from various sources and there would be no consistency regarding data measurement system etc.
Hence we would go on perception based success or failure. Another big advantage of using individual perception would be that some