marketing mix

• reliability
• safety
• convenience of use
• fashion
• aesthetic qualities
• durability
• legal requirements

product design elements important to business:

• financial viability
• effect on organisation's reputation
• ease of production

technology:

• new technology, more 'advanced' products
• totally new products to meet needs unfufilled e.g. mobiles
• wider market e.g. household computers nice -mass
• production + process, make more cost effective
• ICT business tailor to individual specs of customer e.g. quick quotation database
• loyalty cards, monitor sales records

but competitor may: -intro new 'me-too' product, -spark new ideas for new competitors

demand -use marketing mix to increase demand to overcome spare capacity e.g. theatre, set higher price for popular events, low for less popular -full capacity + high sales rev.

supply -rationalisation. process of improving efficiency by cutting scale of operations

reducing capacity

• sell off all/part of production area -long-term issue
• changing to shorter working hours
• laying off workers
• transferring resources from another area

increasing capacity

• build/extend factories
• ask staff work overtime/longer hours
• hire new staff
• flexible workforce (core workers= regular demand)

• overall quality of pr/service
• friendly staff
• problems solved efficiently
• speed of delivery compared with promised speed
• staff helpfulness
• how effective enquiries handled
• competence of staff completing tasks
• ease of business transaction
• extent customer kept informed of developments

an organisation asks another to make all/part of its product

pros:

• react quicker sudden demand
• subcontractors more specialised
• lets firm focus on core business
• pass on order+ benefit without disturbing normal production

cons:

• loose control over quality
• erodes company's operations base -difficult research, make changes
• expensive, less profit
• may give confidential info e.g. methods + patent

tangible measures of quality

• appearance
• reliability
• durability
• funtions (added extras) e.g mobile with camera
• after sales service
• repair + maintenance needs

intangible measures of quality

• image, brand
• reputation
• exclusiveness e.g. Chanel

quality is important to a business because -impact sales vol, create USP, impact selling price -profit margins, pricing flexibility (charge higher to customers value quality), cost reductions i.e. waste