PART THREE: Discussion

　　Keeping Market Share

　　Your company is losing its share in razor market recently. You have been asked to look into this situation. Discuss the situation together, and decide:

　　l what are the reasons behind your company’s losing market share

　　l what measures can be taken to improve the situation

　　保持市場份額

　　最近你們公司的剃須刀市場份額在減少。公司請你們負(fù)責(zé)調(diào)查這種情況。討論并決定：

　　l 公司剃須刀市場份額減少的原因有哪些

　　l 應(yīng)該采取什么措施來提高剃須刀的市場份額

　　A： Our company is losing the market share in razor products recently. We carried out a market survey last week and these are the results of the survey. Let’s look at them and decide what are the reasons why we are losing the razor market share.

　　B: All right. From the survey, I can see that 20% of customers think that they do not have a big choice for our products, so our product range is not wide enough.

　　A: Yes, I agree. Another problem is that our products are not so easy to handle, you see, 10% of our customers think so.

　　B: And last month, a new competitor entered the market. In a very short period, it has captured 8% of market share.

　　A: No wonder our market share is falling.

　　B: Now, let’s look at what measures we should take in order to improve the situation. It seems that we must widen our present product range to maintain our market position.

　　A: That’s true. We must increase our product variety. But it’s not enough, we still must modify our products to improve customer satisfaction. What else can we do?

　　B: We can develop a completely new product. You see, the competition is very fierce, in order to stay competitive, we have to develop new products.

　　A: You’re right. We must do so, although developing new products is risky and costly.

　　B: Should we cut the price of our products?

　　A: I don’t think this measure will do. Cutting price will affect our product image. But we can use trading stamps, premiums, free samples, etc. to increase sales.

　　A: Yeah, sales promotion will be very useful to keep the market share of razor.

　　A: 我們公司的剃須刀市場份額最近有所減少。上周我們實施了市場調(diào)查，這些是活動調(diào)查的結(jié)果。讓我們來調(diào)查一下，是什么原因?qū)е挛覀儐适�剃須刀市場的份額。

　　B：好的。從調(diào)查來看，我了解到20%的客戶認(rèn)為他們不會把我公司的產(chǎn)品作為首選，因此我們產(chǎn)品的范圍并不是是的，足夠?qū)拸V。

　　A：是的，我同意。你知道10%的客戶認(rèn)為另一個問題是我們的產(chǎn)品很難處理。

　　B：而且上個月，一個新的競爭者進(jìn)入市場。在短期內(nèi)，占領(lǐng)了8%的市場份額。

　　A：毋庸置疑我們的市場份額正在下降。

　　B：現(xiàn)在，讓我們看一下要采取什么措施來改善這種情況。看起來我們必須擴大目前的產(chǎn)品范圍來保持我們的市場地位。

　　A：是這樣的。我們必須增加產(chǎn)品種類。但是這還不夠，我們還必須修改我們的產(chǎn)品來改善客戶滿意度。其他需要我們做什么呢?

　　B：我們可以徹底的開發(fā)新產(chǎn)品，你知道，競爭非常激烈，為了保持競爭力，我們不得不開發(fā)新的產(chǎn)品。

　　A：你是對的。我們必須這樣做。雖然開發(fā)新產(chǎn)品風(fēng)險大成本高。

　　B：我們是否應(yīng)該考慮降價?

　　A：我不認(rèn)為這種方法可行。降價將會影響我們產(chǎn)品的形象。但是我們可以運用印花稅、贈品、免費的樣品等等手段來增加銷售額。

　　B：是的，促銷將對保持市場份額很有用。

　　(1) Do you think it necessary to set up a new product committee in developing new products?(Why?/Why not?)

　　你認(rèn)為有必要成立新產(chǎn)品開發(fā)委員會來開發(fā)新產(chǎn)品嗎?(為什么?)

　　Yes, it’s quite necessary to set up a new product committee, because successful products development requires an effective organizational structure to stimulate and coordinate new product development.

　　(2) Do you think it important to find new markets for existing products? (Why?/Why not?)

　　你認(rèn)為現(xiàn)存的產(chǎn)品尋找新的市場很重要嗎?(為什么?)

　　Yes, because one of the product development strategies is market development, it concentrates on finding new markets for existing products.

　　(3) Do you know why many new products fail?

　　你知道為什么許多新產(chǎn)品未能成功開發(fā)嗎?

　　I think new products fail for a number of reasons, such as inadequate market assessment, lack of a market orientation, poor screening and project evaluation, product defects, and inadequate launch efforts.

　　(4) What do you think are the sources of ideas for new product development?

　　你認(rèn)為新產(chǎn)品開發(fā)創(chuàng)意的來源是什么?

　　There are many source, like the sales force, customer feedback, employees, research and development specialists, suppliers, retailers, and independent inventors, etc.

　　(5) What do you think are the problems for test marketing?

　　你覺得市場測試存在哪些問題?

　　It’s expensive, and competitors may disrupt the findings by reducing the prices of their products in the area. Also it communicates company plans to competitors prior to its introduction.