Dyson brand positioning

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Scenario

You are the global marketing vice president at Dyson. You have been asked to attend a meeting with James Dyson, the company's founder. Dyson's CEO and the head of Dyson's New Product Innovation department will also be in attendance.

"Thanks for meeting with me today," James says. "Market intelligence has shown that our major competitors—Hoover, Shark, and Bissell—are all developing new cordless vacuum cleaners with a longer battery life than what's currently available."

James Dyson looks to you: "I need you to participate in a new cross-functional product development team that will research the feasibility of creating a cordless vacuum cleaner that works for one hour on a single charge. We also need to know if there's even a market for this type of vacuum," he says.

"We envision that this new vacuum will be used primarily in the home, but keep in mind, we want to be able to adapt it easily and cheaply for light commercial use. One way of doing this is by using swappable battery packs."

"Have an actionable marketing plan ready for me in three weeks," James says.

You know that to give the CEO the most thorough report, you'll need to conduct an internal analysis of Dyson and an environmental scan for the new vacuum cleaner. You'll need to have a detailed plan for identifying marketing opportunities, and you'll need to research the home and commercial vacuum cleaner industry, market trends, and Dyson's major global competition.

Introduction

As you have read above, this project asks you to put together a marketing plan for your CEO. The marketing plan will be for a consumer product with the potential to expand into light commercial use. The product will have a new swappable battery with longer life than the competition.

1 Introduction to Marketing

One of the most important functional areas in business is marketing. Companies such as Google, Boeing, Airbus, Apple, McDonald's, and Toyota have a passion for understanding their consumers and satisfying consumer needs in "well-defined target markets" (Kotler & Armstrong, 2014, p. 4). Basically, marketing is a managerial and social function through which companies and consumers create and exchange value. Kotler and Armstrong define marketing as the "process by which companies create value for consumers and build strong consumer relationships in order to capture value from consumers in return" (p.5).

The marketing process involves the following five steps (Kotler & Armstrong, 2014, p. 5):

1. Understanding the marketplace and consumer needs and wants.

2. Designing a consumer-driven marketing strategy.

3. Constructing an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value.

4. Building profitable relationships and creating consumer satisfaction.

5. Capturing value from consumers to create profits and consumer equity.

There are five major consumer value themes (Kotler & Armstrong, 2014, p. XVI):

1. Creating value for the consumer in order to capture value from them in return.

2. Creating and managing strong local and global value-creating brands.

3. Capitalizing on new marketing technologies such as the Internet and social media (eMarketing).

4. Assessing and managing the return on marketing investment.

5. Sustainable global marketing.

Selecting a product (or a service) to develop is a serious process in which cross-functional teams contribute to researching, selecting, developing, and launching the new product. In addition, the company needs to evaluate the attractiveness of a new business. Sometimes a company will seek external help to develop a new product as the company may lack the necessary technical expertise, market knowledge, or resources. The company may also simply want to spread the financial risk involved i.e., strategic alliances.

To carry out this assignment, you need to understand consumers, how to acquire market knowledge (through primary and secondary research), and how to turn that knowledge into products that are needed and wanted by a group of consumers. You must also be able to invent market offerings that not only create value for the consumer but also create profitability for the organization. A company should strive to do all of this while being socially responsible and engaging in ethical behavior.

There are two types of market research: primary and secondary research. Both types of research are required, and each of them has its pros and cons.