703 Assignment: Runners Pro Product Strategy and Competitive Analysis

This assignment analyzes product strategy, innovation, and competitive gap analysis for Runners Pro smartwatches. It begins with an overview of product merchandising and promotion strategies, including the use of e-commerce platforms, physical stores, and attractive discounts. The assignment emphasizes the importance of the marketing mix (product, people, price, place) and highlights the need to humanize the product to attract consumers. It then delves into breakthrough innovation, defining it as unique advancements that alter consumer behavior, and applies this concept to the Runners Pro smartwatch, which is continuously updated with new features. The assignment also includes a competitive gap analysis, examining the current market situation, identifying gaps, and proposing ways to reduce these gaps, focusing on the smartwatch and wearables business area. The analysis covers aspects like product design, consumer needs, and the competitive landscape, including Apple and Fitbit. The assignment concludes with references to relevant academic sources.

Q3. Idea generation
Ideas for product strategy
a. Product merchandising
As in case of most of the items, the products will be Merchandise using The E-Commerce sites.
In order to attract the local consumers, the will be in the form of shop-nz. It is also necessary to
provide the consumer with the physical shop along with the virtual one so that they can walk in
and select the product best suited for them. The products need to be physically accessible by
the shop by making sure that they have a well organised warehouse. In order to target the
Global audience along with the local ones, the product can be promoted on E-commerce
website like Amazon. In order to lure the prospective customers, it is necessary to make sure
that the customers get a good quality product, effective pricing and attractive discount by using
discount coupons and vouchers for free merchandise from select stores (Choi & Kim, 2016).
In order to make sure that the product penetrate into the market it is necessary to take care of
four aspects of the marketing mix which are namely the product itself, the people, the price and
the place. In order to highlight the product to the consumer, the merchandising will take into
account the product features which includes solar charging, GPS, water and shock resistance,
multimedia features to name a few. According to Vitali, Arquilla & Tolino (2017), the consumer
will be attracted to the aesthetics of the product only if they are provided with realistic images.
The promotion of the product will be simultaneously done by providing excellent Customer
services and the product itself. The customers will have the freedom to choose the platform of
purchasing as well as the mode of payment which will make product promotion and
merchandising much easier as the product will be easily accessible to be the customers and
they can also check the reviews.
b. Product promotion
As in case of any product, it is necessary to humanize the product and make it relatable to the
customers as much as possible so that the consumers have a desire to purchase the product.
Product promotion is a very crucial aspect of the marketing mix. Apart from the word of mouth
promotions from the consumers and reviews from the product uses, it is necessary to invest in
proper promotional activities that will enlighten the consumers about the availability of the
products in the market (Lin, 2018). TV commercials, newspaper advertisement and jingles on
the social media platforms have become the norm of product promotion.
In order to attract of particular segment of the targeted market it is necessary for the
organisation to understand what are the key points with which a potential consumer belonging
to the specific market segment can identify themselves with the product. In this case the product

is to be advertise then promoted as a sports wear. This means that the primary target of the
product are health conscious individuals. These health conscious individuals have athletic role
models whom they look up to. Hence, as observed by Sasongko (2018), it is very much
advisable that the company ropes in famous athletes from New Zealand who will give the local
consumers something relatable in the local contact. Making use of famous personalities and
sport persons should drastically improve the promotional activities as the consumers will be
able to associate the product with images of trust, honesty and reliability in their head.
Q5. Breakthrough innovation
Any innovation which is unique or has the state of the art technological advancement in a
specific category of product that has the ability to significantly alter the consumer behaviour
pattern in a market can be considered as innovation (Altuntaş & Akyüz, 2019). In breakthrough
innovation changes are applied to the existing services, processes as well as product which in
turn has a significant impact on the proceedings of a business organisation. Search kind of
innovation may result in creating of new category of consumers for the business organisation or
sometimes it may alter The interaction and perception of the existing consumers in regards to
the business of the product. The innovation is to originate from the core of length of the
organisation and search and innovation main result the company to leapfrog ahead of the
competitors.
Due to increasing competitive market, the businesses have been forced to adopt new and
innovative strategies which will help them to adapt to the existing situation. As already describe
the breakthrough innovation is an intrinsic innovation which will help the company transform
itself and takes it to the next level. According to Hernández (2019), the concept of Smart Watch
has become quite old but not obsolete and has significant room for Innovation and
improvement. The Runners Pro has been constantly innovating their existing range of smart
watches buy adding and reviewing features which in turn has an effect on the performance of
the product as well as ability to satisfy the consumers.
In order to make sure that the consumers get the best product and features and have the ability
to make most of the product they purchase, the product has been tweaked by adding new
sensors, Audio display features, physical fitness monitoring devices and unlimited connectivity
across the various platforms. This constitutes the basic definition of breakthrough innovation.
Hence it is easy to understand that the product being sold has been modified by the company
which gives it the potential to jump ahead against their competitive Rivals in the market (Melo,
2017). The innovation has been systematic and thoroughly tested. The consumers on the other
hand are able to interact with the product in a different way than before which increases the

demand for the product in the market and these results in skyrocketing profits for the company.
In order to pursue quality and customer satisfaction it is necessary for the company to invest its
resources in modifying the existing range of products by addition of new features, performance
boosting modules and better battery life. As observed by Enér & Knutsbo (2015), the era of
smart watches is around us and for a company to stay afloat in such a situation, it is necessary
that day pursue Innovation and rather than disrupting the entire Market by developing
something new which is not possible all the time, the company can make breakthroughs with
their existing product line which will force the consumers to perceive and interact with the
product as well as the company in a different manner.
Q6. Competitive gap analysis

Gap Analysis
Business area: Smart watch and wearables
Business
requirement
Present
situation
Gap Ways to reduce
gap
Risks
To establish
itself in the niche
market of
smartwatch
industries in New
Zealand
The company is
just a startup
venture and is
still blooming
There is
perceivable
amount of
difference in
quality of the
product and
aesthetics
Significant
investment in
product design
and
development is
necessary
Funneling too
much money in
product design
without getting
any suitable
result would lead
to losses
To provide the
consumers with
an all rounder
product that
satisfies the
consumer needs
The company is
just focussed on
athletes and
professional
sportsmen
The common
consumers may
require less of
the functions
required by
athletes and they
may be
technologically
ignorant
Develop a
design that can
be used by the
common man
The product
needs to be easy
to use so that
the consumer
does not need to
have excessive
technological
knowledge to
use the product.
To create a
friend image in a
market
dominated by
Apple and Fitbit
Company is a
Startup venture
and does not
have much
recognition in the
field and market.
Apple has been
The pioneer of
Smartwatch
while Fitbit has
developed
designs which
are giving
competition even
to Apple
Making a
suitable
marketing mix
and
complimenting
net worth
excellent after
sales customer
service
If the people are
not able to
associate terms
like integrity
reliability and
polity with the
company, the
chances of the
company feeling
is very high in

the long run.
To make a
product which is
affordable for all
the market
segments of
New Zealand
The current
pricing of the
product is in the
higher end and
hence it is
necessary to
bring down the
product cost so
that the product
is easily
accessible to all
the market
segments.
Irrespective of
the smart watch
manufacturer the
price for a quality
and affordable
Smartwatch is in
the range of 400
to 600 dollars
which is very
costly for the
lower income
groups forming
the majority of
the consumers in
the market.
The company
needs to
research and
develop
materials and
other necessary
components
which will
significantly
bring down the
price of the
Smartwatch
without
negotiating on
the quality
The materials
developed need
to be quality
testing else no
one will
purchase the
product even
though it is
affordable.

References
Altuntaş, B., & Akyüz, A. (2019). Attitude and Purchase Intention Towards Smartwatches: An
Empirical Research on the Innovative Wearable Technology Field. In Handbook of
Research on Managerial Thinking in Global Business Economics (pp. 41-57). IGI Global.
Choi, J., & Kim, S. (2016). Is the smartwatch an IT product or a fashion product? A study on
factors affecting the intention to use smartwatches. Computers in Human Behavior, 63,
777-786.
Enér, R., & Knutsbo, L. (2015). Factors Influencing Consumer Acceptance of New Technology:
A Case Study of Smartwatches.
Hernández, G. J. L. (2019). Wearable Technology: Shaping Market Opportunities Through
Innovation, Learning, and Networking. In Reverse Entrepreneurship in Latin America(pp.
29-44). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.
Lin, K. Y. (2018). A TEXT MINING APPROACH TO CAPTURE USER EXPERIENCE FOR
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT. International Journal of Industrial Engineering, 25(1).
Melo, S. C. N. D. (2017). The future of smartwatches: a case on the current status and expected
category evolution on the Portuguese market (Doctoral dissertation).
Sasongko, Y. S. (2018). The influence of celebrity endorsement and consumer trust toward
purchase intention in dotic donut instagram in Malang (Doctoral dissertation, Widya
Mandala Catholic University Surabaya).
Vitali, I., Arquilla, V., & Tolino, U. (2017). A Design perspective for IoT products. A case study of
the Design of a Smart Product and a Smart Company following a crowdfunding
campaign. The Design Journal, 20(sup1), S2592-S2604.