Surveying Marketing Opportunities

Developing New Products and Services

ActiveION Case Study

Alexis Currell-Therrien & Giovanni Pasquini

Dr.Navjote Khara
11-12-15
BMKT9103

Introduction

Success for an organization is often dictated by the knowledge it possess; who

are the customers? Competitors? How can the needs of the consumer be met while
gaining a competitive edge in a desired market (Guide to market research and
analysis)? In order to gain clarity companies invoke market research. Market research
can allow a company to:

Understand your customers and their preferences

Identify opportunities to grow and increase profits
Recognize and plan for industry and economic shifts
Monitor the competition in your market
Mitigate risk in your business decisions

It is from the efforts of market research that allow a company to explore areas of
innovation (Guide to market research and analysis). Innovation is often a measure of
success for an organization. The trend of innovating started near the end of the 20 th
century as international competition greatly rose (Mote). In order for companies to
remain competitive and relevant in a growing market share it is essential for innovation
to occur; innovation set organizations apart from competitors. The process of innovation
at the start of the movement was of trial-and-error experimentation with no metrics to
record success or failure of products (Mote). In order to counter the uncertainty of an
innovations success or failure many companies resorted to using a seven step process.
This process is commonly referred to as the new product process, this process outlines
the potential opportunities of a product and attempts to convert these opportunities into
saleable goods or services. The seven steps as outlined in Marketing consist of:
Stage 1: New Product Development
The organization decides on the type of innovation it wishes to pursue. It is within this
stage that company outlines the guidelines, structure and approach to take to achieve
such innovation. This stage is also important as it determines the place such a new
product has within the company. Organizations ask what the cost and profitability new
innovation has.
Stage 2: Idea Generation
The gathering and developing of abstract thoughts and ideas to achieve a new product.
The following are different ways to generate new ideas:

Customer & Supplier suggestions: Retrieving customer feedback allows a

company to progress and make changes along the way.
Employee & Co-worker suggestions: All the employees and co-workers
collaborate and share their ideas for a new product. This is purely inside input.
Research and Development Breakthroughs: Companies are constantly
researching new ways for innovation and scanning their target markets.
Competitive Products: The Company evaluates the competitors product, this
involves analyzing its strengths and weakness.

Universities, Inventors & Small Technology Firms: Looking for outside input to
bring new ideas to the table that might not have been mentioned before
Stage 3: Screening and Evaluation
It is within this stage that companies that a decision on whether or not efforts towards
innovation should continue. This decision is weighed through both an internal and
external approach.

Internal Evaluation- Evaluate the technical feasibility of the product being

developed. Does the newly developed tech have implications within the
organization? Outside?
External Evaluation- Consists of preliminary testing in controlled environments.
Often testing is done in multiple markets with each market having minor
modifications on the product.

Stage 4: Business Analysis

This step involves a detailed marketing plan and an analysis of your external and
internal factors. This is the last step before a company invest money into a fully
functional prototype.

Stage 5: Development

The stage in which companies take the idea from paper and develop prototypes,
it is the stage in which the idea becomes demonstrable and accessible. Within
this stage companies decide on the manufacturing process and costing of the
product. Both factors need to be considered as the company needs to develop a
strategy for executing cost effectiveness without sacrificing quality while also
making sure the product can remain affordable for users.

Stage 6: Market Testing

This is when a company test the need for this product in the market. There are three
primary kinds of test markets. Some companies will skip standard testing and go directly
to controlled or simulated testing because its too time consuming.

Standard Testing: When a company develops a product and tries to sell it

through regular distribution channels such as television ads.
Controlled Testing: When a company pays a retailer to put their product on the
shelf. This way they are able to track the sale of their product through scans.
Simulated Testing: This is the most time and cost efficient. This is when a
company simulates a test market in a laboratory.

Stage 7: Commercialization

The final stage of the new product process, it is in this stage that company figures out
its position within the market sphere. How the product is received in relation to its
competitors.
The challenge of satisfying marketing opportunities when developing a new
product is of no exception to ActiveION. Through the understanding of market research
and the new product process the case of the Ionator, ActiveIONs leading product will be
examined to show the trials and tribulations a company endures when introducing
innovation into the market sphere. The implementation of knowledge from market
research and the new product process can greatly determine the success or failure
when developing and executing innovation to a new market.
Summary of ActiveION
ActiveION is a revolutionary cleaning solution that kills 99.9% of bacteria with
nothing more than tap water. Although this cleaning technology already exists on a
larger scale, ActiveION licensed it from a smaller company and created it to be a
miniature handheld device. Miniaturizing this large technology made it available to
smaller business and the everyday consumers at an affordable price. Not only did it
cancel out the environmental concerns on producing, packaging, transporting and
disposing of cleaning chemicals, it also took care of health concerns. ActiveION can be
used on a variation of surfaces, such as: glass, stainless steel, wood and carpet (Crane,
2014).
Question One
ActiveIONs primary goal was green cleaning. Although the device has key main
differences as to why and how both business users and household users use
ActiveION.
a) Business User: ActiveION is ideal for the business user because the small
portable device is efficient for cleaning within a busy work place. The long battery
life allows ongoing cleaning throughout the entire day. This device has been
proven to easily be used therefor requiring no training. Buying this product cuts
cost by no longer needing to purchase expensive and toxic cleaning supplies.
Because this product only requires tap water, toxic residue wont be left on desk
surfaces of staircase railings.
b) Household User: This chemical free cleaning device allows children to practice
cleaning habits without parents having to worry of their child ingesting or coming
in contact with toxic chemicals. Because ActiveION is small and portable it
makes it ideal for impromptu moments and messes. Relieving parents from doing
all the cleaning.

Question Two

ActiveIONs target markets varied between the usual business user and household
users.
a) Business Users: ActiveIONs target market for the casual business user was risk
takers and people who cared about the environment.
b) Household Users: For household users ActiveION also targeted those who cared
about the environment. They also target the tech savvy X/Y generation simply
because ActiveION is using advanced technology. The high cost also required a
target market for the wealthy.
Question Three
In order for innovation to grow and succeed it is often essential for companies to
evaluate the effectiveness of the product. Such evaluation allows organizations to
create metrics for success and provide a basis to judge organizational growth (Mote).
An evaluation using a weighted scale of five (5=Very Favourable, 3=Neutral and 1=Very
Unfavourable) will be used to evaluate ActiveIONs use of completeness of the new
product process for business and household consumers (Crane, 2014).
a) By using the seven steps of the new product process to evaluate ActiveIONs
effectiveness of introducing innovation to business users a weighted grade of
three is given. It is felt that ActiveIONs innovation of cleaning through ionized
water is neutral for business users The product is very well received in some
businesses and poorly in others; the sporadic success in varying markets warrant
a neutral reception overall to the product. A neutral weight is also given because
of pre-existing technology found in other fields; food processing plants,
pharmaceutical plants use similar tech on a larger scale (Crane, 2014).
ActiveION took a pre-existing idea of cleanliness through ionized water and
made it more accessible, by creating a handheld process. In terms of bringing a
new product to market its idea for innovation relied heavily on an established
method of cleaning. Finally a neutral grade was given because of the lack of
marketing and commercialization of the product. The product was not heavily
marketed and saw limited promotion; this has been reflected not only in sales of
the product but from the bankruptcy of ActiveION itself.
b) On a scale of 1 to 5, a 2 was rightfully given to ActiveIONs household user
version. Although ActiveIONs a revolutionary cleaning solution it was never able
to grow to its full potential. This is because of their poor marketing and the high
cost associated with it. Not only that, but the ActiveION is a one-time purchase,
unlike having to continuously buy cleaning products. Because there is no other
known use for this technology, they were unable to create different products,
making it hard for continuous revenue.

Question Four

In order for new products to launch successfully a company need to understand and
have target audiences. These are the audiences most efforts of commercialization are
focused on as these are have been deemed the highest potential buyers of the product.
The ActiveION case three potential target audiences seemed to be prevalent;
environmentally friendly, health/safety Concerned and technology enthusiasts. Each
target audience differ from one another and in order to generate the maximum
knowledge on the product different media sources have been outlined.

Environmental Friendly
o News
o Newspaper
o Advertising(Commercials, Flyers, Posters)

Message: Naturally Clean; Cleanliness through natural means

Health/Safety
o Pamphlets(Doctor endorsed)
o Pet Stores
o Schools
o Brochures
o Social Media

Message: Safe Cleaning alternative- Achieve cleanliness through water no chemicals

needed

Technology Enthusiasts
o Websites-tech focused
o Blogs
o Tech Conferences

Question 5
Though being an already niche cleaning product ActiveION can pursue other handheld
applications with its technology. They can focus on water purification systems as the
technology in place for the Ionator already acts as a mean to remove dirt from the water
source. ActiveION can also pursue specialty cleaning products for specific items and
develop new models that can help improve efficiency of a cleaning task. For example
ActiveION can produce a new product that can clean cars, furniture etc. ActiveION
could also pursue to develop and improve its current handheld tech by offering such
upgradeable accessories like a larger water basin.

Works Cited
Crane, F., Kerin, R., Hartley, S., & Rudelius, W. (2014). Developing new products and
services.
In Marketing (Ninth Canadian ed., pp. 259-281). McGraw-Hill Education.

Guide to market research and analysis. (2015, July 22). Retrieved November 9, 2015.

Mote, D. (n.d.). INNOVATION (K. Heil, Ed.). Retrieved October 28, 2015.