PRODUCT FAILURE: CAUSES AND EFFECTS

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Marketing management should be concerned with the responsibility of pursuing customer’s-oriented policies, and as a result develop products and services that satisfy customer’s needs and wants beneficially.  Often a market opportunity is recognized or there is a commitment to make something better or cheaper, but occasionally the simple desire to invent or introduce a new product or service provides the spur to starting the firm.  In developing a programme to reach its intended market, a company starts with product or service designed to satisfy the wants and needs of that target market.

Product failure is the ultimate defining line in poor quality. Smithers Rapra (www.smithersrapra.com) has investigated thousands of product failures and the results of this are shown below. The overwhelming majority of product failures (65%) were caused by poor specification/material selection and design. Of the remaining 35%, 20% were caused by processing (although in many cases this could also potentially be due to poor design) and 15% by misuse (although again good design can minimise the potential for misuse by either clear signposting of the limitations or the design intent)

If product failure has resulted in death, injury or damage to property, statements from those in the vicinity will often be available. The earlier statements have been gathered, the better. Memory fades, and the later a witness is asked to recall events, the greater the chances of error, especially if litigation has started. Bias creeps into statements and there is usually a lack of technical detail, because the interrogator is normally a lawyer with no technical expertise. If there are one or more victims, their memory may be affected by the accident. For example, falls from ladders are among the most common to occur to consumers, but falls from a height often cause mental shock, and amnesia about the events just prior to the fall. Often accidents occur so quickly that the witnesses or victims have great difficulty recalling the sequence of events, making the material remains the only mute evidence to the incident. Circumstantial evidence is frequently the only reliable evidence available, and the material evidence must be checked against any witness statements available.

5. Commercialization: This is a process of introducing a new product into the market.

 

 

A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention acquisition, use or consumption and that might satisfy a want or need. Products include more than just tangible goods. Broadly defined, product include physical objects, services, persons, places, organization ideas, or mixes of these entitles.

 

LEVELS OR COMPONENTS OF A PRODUCT:Product planners need t o think about the product on three levels. The most basic level in the core product, which addresses the question; What is the buyer really buying?

 

PRODUCT CLASSIFICATION: Marketers have developed several product classification schemes in developing marketing strategies for their products and services into two broad classes based on types of consumers that use them. Consumer products ans industrial products.

 

CONSUMER PRODUCT:These are those bought by final consumer for personal consumption. Marketers, based on how consumers go about buying them further classify those goods.

 

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS: These are those products purchased for further processing or for use in conduction a business.

 

PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES: Developing a product involves the benefits that the product will offer. These benefits are communicated and delivered by product attributes such as quality, feature and design. Decisions about these attributes greatly affect consumer reactions to a product.

 

PRODUCT QUALITY: Quality is one of the marketers major positioning tools. Quality has two decisions. Level and consistency. In developing a product the marketer must first choose a quality  level that will support the product’s position in the target market.