Graco Snug Ride Soother - Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan Phase 3

Nicole Williams, Crystal Reed, Sam Tayara, Francisco Olivera, Jeffery Anderson, Joe Soria

MKT/421

July 11, 2013

Craig A. Clark

Marketing Plan Phase 3

Graco has released a new baby product called the "Snug Ride Soother" for baby's ages 0-12 months old. The Snug Ride Soother car seats will sooth your baby as you keep your eyes on the road. The car seat is controlled by a remote control that provides buttons that will allow parents to give the baby whatever it may need at the time. The Snug Ride soother is equipped with motion sensors that will give the baby their pacifier and bottle. Once the baby is placed in the car seat, the seatbelts will safely strap the baby in the seat and when the baby starts crying, the soother will rock the baby and give the baby their pacifier which is preloaded. Our new product will even notify you with a beeping sound to let you know if the baby needs to be changed. The Snug Ride soother provides safety and comfort.

Graco Company is in the Product development stage of introducing a new product, Sung Ride Soother infant car seat. When the company decided to proceed with the development of the new product, from previous experience we are aware of negative profitability during this period. Furthermore during this stage is typically characterized by zero sales, also the company will absorb developmental costs. The pace of the new product will go through Product Life Cycle which consists of Introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Introduction stage is comprised of researching, developing, and getting the product to market. Slow profits at the start of the introduction stage are typical, with stronger earning towards the latter end of this cycle. This is due to the high cost of research that occurs during the product development stage, and production of the product, along with promotional activities of introducing a new innovative product. There are two halves which occur during the Growth stage of the product development stage. The first half is normally when rapid growth occurs, at this time consumers whom typically purchase items as soon as they are produce will cause this spike in profitability. Also the fact that our new product is getting out to market will began to alleviate consumers concerns, and risk about the Sung Rider Soother. Competitors will begin to enter in the second half of the growth stage. As a result company profit margins will start to decrease and a reduction in market share will begin to transpire. At this time the company will introduce new features to stimulate sales, and stem the tide of fierce competition with a concentration on remaining profitable. In the Maturity stage the Sung Soother Rider has reach it apex and sales will start to decrease with inventories remaining high. Different marketing strategies are explored to continue selling the Sung Rider Soother, by means of slashing prices, which will prolong this stage for as long as it can. Other marketing management techniques are improving quality, making modifications, and entering into new markets. The Decline stage is where profitability continues to decrease at a rapid rate, far from the core years in which the Sung rider soother was producing profits.

The five stages of products are the product development stage, introduction stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage. The stages have an application to style, fashion, and fads. The product life cycle is not going be a fad due to the product line and the application or use and purpose of the Graco car seat. The style and life cycle will be more like style and fashion.

The advantage of Graco is the research and development has the experience of the previous car seats. So the focus will be on the other four sages. The introduction will impact marketing by the time it may take to introduce the product. The product is from a well-known company so the name recognition is there and promotional spending may be relatively low to market the new and improved car seat. The demand for car seat is not diminishing so the marketing will need to address the long term but be thinking about short term gains.

The growth will be quick and marketing will need to be geared to toward marketing the new features and to get the buyers to the brand and lead in the market shares. The fact that other companies will follow and enter the market the price will need to be competitive and seek to sale units