Post by account_disabled on Mar 9, 2024 19:53:44 GMT -8
Your products will always be at the mercy of competitive pressures, changing market preferences and new emerging technologies.
Success depends on understanding and anticipating change through continuous improvement.
Developing products for new international markets is a continuous process.
Maintaining competitiveness and increasing sales in international trade means investing in new product development and product adaptation.
This investment ensures that products meet the regulations, needs and expectations of new markets, better positioning the company for success.
Development of new products for foreign markets
In international trade, product development translates to the creation of new products designed specifically for foreign markets.
Product adaptation refers to the redesign or modification of an existing product to meet the needs of one or more overseas markets.
This includes any customization required by the consumer.
The steps for developing a new product and those for adapting an existing product are fundamentally the same, with only minor differences.
Although product adaptation may be simpler if we start from an elementary design, adaptations must also be designed, using the same rigor and strategies used when designing or developing a new product.
Product development and adaptation is the continuous process of bringing products to market as the products go through their life cycle, such as replacing discontinued products with new or adapted products.
Different types of products can serve different purposes:
Innovative products are a means to enter an existing market.
Additions to existing product lines complement and expand options for consumers
Improvements or revisions to an existing product line can improve market share and re-engage early consumers
Product repositioning allows companies to target new markets.
Product development and adaptation can be used to reduce production costs and sometimes reduce prices for consumers when a similar product can meet the same needs at a lower cost.
Using market research to make the right decisions
Organizations that sell products internationally to multiple markets need to know exactly where the product they sell is in the product life cycle, for each market.
This knowledge, combined with research on competing products, current regulations, and market demand, helps determine whether they need to adapt a current product or develop a new product before entering a new target market.
In many cases, products must be changed before they can be introduced into new markets.
Depending on the life cycle stage, this may involve marginal changes to product labeling or packaging, or involve alterations to design and functionality.
Exporters will never have a perfect product
For example, baby car seats have reached the maturity period in North America, but the pioneer period in China.
A French manufacturer Ecuador Mobile Number List looking to expand in the U.S. may need to adapt its product based on regulatory differences as well as competing products, trends, and consumer preferences.
You may need to significantly differentiate your product to penetrate the competitive US market.
Perhaps even consider developing a new cutting-edge car seat.
To kick off sales in China, the manufacturer would also explore whether regulations would require adapting its seat, but it would face much less competition and lack consumer feedback.
You may want to conduct surveys or focus groups, and you may need to change your packaging to describe how car seats reduce injuries and death.
When introducing a product to a foreign market, an organization can choose between several options:
Sell the product as is, without modifications or changes.
Create modified versions of the existing product, each aimed at a different market. For example, modifying products for safety and functional requirements, such as power requirements that must change from 110 volts to 220 volts.
Incorporating locally induced differences in product offerings, known as “glocalization.”
Create new products for different markets.
Modify the services that accompany the product to better adapt to market requirements.
The mode of product introduction will depend on the information collected about the target market as well as market intelligence findings.
When is product adaptation necessary?
Occasionally, modifications to products or processes may not be necessary.
The company could export the same product and use the same processes that it uses for its domestic market, such as in cases where the company:
It deals with customers who want a product because it is the same in all world markets, such as jeans, records, photographic equipment.
It supplies generic components for export without modifications, such as tires or computer chips.