Mark 5328 Spring 2013 Midterm Exam

MARK 5328 Spring 2013 Midterm exam

This exam is worth 100 points in total. The value for each question is indicated. You have until Monday, March 11 at 7 p.m. to upload your answer to Blackboard. I suggest that if you have any technical difficulties, you contact the Blackboard help desk sooner rather than later. Please limit your answer for the midterm exam to the equivalent of 10 double spaced, typed pages. Be succinct yet support your answers with class materials. You don't need to retype the question, but please indicate your answer with the corresponding question number. Please answer the questions in the order shown below. Answer each part of the question, don't skip over parts of questions.

1. You've just been hired as a Product Manager at Timex (www.timex.com). Timex, as you are aware, is an established watch manufacturer in business for over 156 years. Their primary business is the manufacture of inexpensive watches. Determine the essence of the product, and develop a segmentation scheme (using the six major segmentation criteria) for the various customer groups who utilize watches. Fortunately, your new boss has given you some market information (attached as appendix 1) with which to do so. You don't need to go to any external websites or data sources - everything you need has been provided. You may want to go to the Timex website to familiarize yourself with what the current Timex product portfolio is. Where you think information might be a little unclear or lacking, make a clearly stated assumption and proceed accordingly. (20 points)

2. As a global company, Timex has penetrated many different geographic markets. They have also developed different line extensions for their products. Your next step is to identify a medium range strategy for Timex, utilizing what you know of the different strategic postures taken by companies, the positioning of major competitors (again, derived from the attached market information) and a candid assessment of future trends. (20 points)

3. In addition, you know that there are six major techniques used for concept generation. Pick any two (possibly those which are more relevant to this type of product) and compare and contrast the two techniques. (25 points)

4. Using some internal and external data (appendix 2), evaluate the three new product concepts using the major concept evaluation techniques discussed in class. At a minimum, scoring model using internal data, concept test using customer data, snake plot using customer data, and a KANO analysis. Which concept is the winner for each technique, and why? For this question, you can add an appendix showing the different concept evaluation worksheets if you wish. Show your work. What recommendation do you present to your senior management team relative to these three concepts? (35 points)

Appendix 1.

Watches & Clocks Market Research Reports

A watch is a small timepiece, typically worn either on the wrist or attached on a chain and carried in a pocket, with wristwatches being the most common type of watch used today. They evolved in the 17th century from spring powered clocks, which appeared in the 15th century. The first watches were strictly mechanical. As technology progressed, the mechanisms used to measure time have, in some cases, been replaced by use of quartz vibrations or electromagnetic pulses and are called quartz movements.[1] The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.[2]

Before wristwatches became popular in the 1920s, most watches were pocket watches, which often had covers and were carried in a pocket and attached to a watch chain or watch fob.[3] In early 1900s, the wristwatch, originally called a Wristlet, was reserved for women and considered more of a passing fad than a serious timepiece. Real gentlemen, who carried pocket watches, were actually quoted as saying they would "sooner wear a skirt as wear a wristwatch". This all changed in World War I when soldiers on the battlefield found using a pocket watch to be impractical, so they attached the pocket watch to their wrist by a cupped leather strap. It is also believed that Girard-Perregaux equipped the German Imperial Navy in a similar fashion as early as the 1880s, which were used while synchronizing naval attacks and firing artillery.[4]

Most inexpensive and medium-priced watches used mainly for timekeeping are electronic watches with quartz movements.[1] Expensive, collectible watches valued more for their workmanship and aesthetic appeal than for simple timekeeping, often have purely mechanical movements and are powered by springs, even though mechanical movements are less accurate than more affordable quartz movements. In addition to the time, modern watches often display the day, date, month and year, and electronic watches may have many other functions. Watches that provide additional time-related features such as timers, chronographs and alarm functions are not uncommon. Some modern designs even go as far as using GPS technology or heart-rate monitoring capabilities.

Fashion

A sapphire cabochon on the crown of a men's dress watch

Wristwatches are often appreciated as jewelry or as collectible works of art rather than just as timepieces. This has created several different markets for wristwatches, ranging from very inexpensive but accurate watches (intended for no other purpose than telling the correct time) to extremely expensive watches that serve mainly as personal adornment (featuring jewel bearings to hold gemstones) or as examples of high achievement in miniaturization and precision mechanical engineering.

Traditionally, men's dress watches appropriate for informal (business), semi-formal, and formal attire are gold, thin, simple, and plain, but recent conflation of dressiness and high price has led to a belief among some that expensive rugged, complicated, or sports watches are also dressy because of their high cost. Some dress watches have a cabochon on the crown and many women's dress watches have faceted gemstones on the face, bezel, or bracelet. Some are made entirely of facetted sapphire (corundum).

Many fashion and department stores offer a variety of less-expensive, trendy, "costume" watches (usually for women), many of which are similar in quality to basic quartz timepieces but which feature bolder designs. In the 1980s, the Swiss Swatch company hired graphic designers to redesign a new annual collection of non-repairable watches.

Most companies that produce watches specialize in one or some of these markets. Companies