Page 38 - SMA-2nd-quareter_Neat

IndustrY endorsed Product develoPment and workers in mind. By contrast, clever organisations look for easy opportunities MarKetInG quaLIFICatIons to tweak their products and processes further, thereby lowering their capital costs. While this is good practice anywhere in the world, it is especially important in emerging markets, given the fierce levels of competition. For example, a large producer of engines and industrial equipment In proud recognised that by making straightforward design changes to one of its drive-shaft partnershIp wIth assemblies, it could reduce the complexity ‘Collision workshops’ that include suppliers, marketers and product engineers offer of the machines needed to build them. a low-tech way of discussing customer insights Just allowing for more generous radii and bends in a few key spots would make it possible to produce the components underGraduate deGree and postGraduate / honours quaLIFICatIons with hot forging hammers, a cheaper of electrical products learned this the Continually work at technology than the high-speed cold- hard way when it introduced a mini tweaking products forging machines the company used at The IMM Graduate School of Marketing has provided industry-endorsed, distance learning circuit-breaker system to offer customers home. The changes helped reduce costs marketing qualifcations for over 65 years. With more than17000 graduates in Southern in India better protection from the and processes for materials by 10%, in part by enabling country’s frequent power fluctuations the company to source more goods and Africa, IMM GSM alumni work in top positions in pan-African, multinational corporations and brownouts. The product, adapted equipment from local suppliers. as diverse as telecommunications to fnance to FMCG. The IMM GSM continues to expand from a comparable developed-world The farm equipment manufacturer model, was technically sound and more ‘product per pump’. After receiving lowered its costs in a similar fashion by its African footprint in partnership with the Zambia Institute of Marketing by offering arguably superior to the alternatives. Yet this wake-up call, the global company identifying places where its frontline undergraduate degree and postgraduate qualifcations in Zambia from 2014. sales suffered as customers turned to redesigned its product from the ground workers could replace expensive products from competitors offering an up, ultimately changing the formulation, fasteners with cheaper welds during older – and cheaper – ‘use and throw’ fuse packaging, and even design of its pump product assembly. This reduced not only The Kenneth Kaunda Metropolitan University has been technology. not until the company started bottle. The rejuvenated product, vastly the company’s manufacturing costs, but over with a new design incorporating cheaper to produce and no less effective also the cost of maintenance for farmers, Recognised by the IMM GSM as an Additional Tuition Centre, the older technology did the product than its predecessor, generated a 40% who otherwise had to replace the became competitive. margin improvement. fasteners as they fell off. offering additional tuition towards IMM GSM programmes to A handful of leading companies extends similarly, the telecommunications and Traditional approaches to product students who voluntarily elect to receive them. this thinking further still, approaching data-services provider recognised that its development are coming under strain their product portfolios with a ‘zero-based mobile phone towers were overdesigned as emerging markets start to dominate design’ mentality. The benefits can be compared with those of its competitors. the global economy. Companies that www.kkmu.org profound. A global consumer-products By starting over from scratch, the learn to shake up their thinking and Mobile: +260 965 943 695 company, for example, was losing share in company lowered its cost to build each effectively challenge the assumptions an important Asian market to a domestic tower by almost 30%, while still meeting about how they design, develop and Tel: +260 211 268 471 competitor offering a lower price for a or exceeding local safety regulations. manufacture products are more likely common personal-care product. Instead to master the extremes of this new ContaCt us For More InForMatIon reGardInG underGraduate deGree and postGraduate optIons of responding with a marketing push or 3. design for competitive landscape. a price cut, the consumer-goods maker manufacturability ran a head-to-head comparison of the A final way top product manufacturers Adapted from an article by Sauri ZIM Secretariat natIonaL CaLL Centre two products – including a sophisticated separate themselves from the competition Gudlavalleti, Shivanshu Gupta and Ananth Ms Mwangala nyambe +27 (0) 11 628 2000 analysis of chemical ingredients. is to go on challenging their assumptions Narayanan, all of McKinsey Consulting. PHOTOS: GETTY/GALLO IMAGES, ISTOCKPHOTO 0211 258934/5 Email: imm@immgsm.ac.za This investigation showed that the low- well into the manufacturing process. McKinsey is a global management cost company, using a formulation that surprisingly, perhaps, though most global consulting firm that focuses on solving 0966 698814 IMM GSM was half as costly as the global player’s, companies have manufactured products in issues of concern to senior management. info@zambiainstituteofmarketing.co.zm @IMMGSM was achieving the same levels of efficacy. emerging markets for years, they typically McKinsey serves as an adviser to What’s more, the rival’s pump bottle don’t go as far as they could to design businesses, governments and institutions www.immgsm.ac.za maximised margins by delivering 10% them with emerging market customers around the world. The IMM Graduate School of Marketing (IMM GSM) is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) as a private higher education institution under the The IMM Graduate School of Marketing (IMM GSM) is registered in the Republic of South Africa with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) 36 strategicmarketingafrica Second quarter 2014 as a private higher educa Higher Education Act, 1997. Registration certifcate number 2000/HE07/013.tion institution under the Higher Education Act, 1997. Registration certifcate number 2000/HE07/013.