Question 1: What are the key marketing challenges facing Guari Nanda? How would you prioritize them in terms of which are most crucial to effectively bringing her new product to the market? (Answers listed in order or priority)

Product positioning
Nanda already has media/consumer interest, which should help her find interested partners for bringing the product to market, but she needs to first decide how to position her product in the market. Is Clocky a “Fun” product or a “Need” product? If Clocky is positioned as a fun/cute product, she needs to be careful to avoid turning the product into a fad or having price points so high they could alienate potential customers. If she positions Clocky as a Need product, she may raise consumer …show more content…

3. Capabilities: Bringing a new product to market is foreign to Nanda. She has limited (or no) experience in manufacturing, marketing, distribution and business management.

Given her marketing challenges, goals and capabilities, it is in Nanda’s best interest to position Clocky in the “Fun” market segment. The Fun market is likely to be bigger and would allow her to focus on the cute/humanizing qualities of Clocky, rather than have to deal with the questions of effectiveness that targeting the Need market would invite. Targeting the Fun market is also conducive to marketing Clocky as a gift item, which (based on feedback on her website) targets a significant proportion of users with income. In addition, positioning Clocky in the “Fun” market does not prevent those in the “Need” market from purchasing the product. Lastly, to address concerns of Fun products tending to become a fad, most fad products don’t really have everyday functionality. Clocky will always be an alarm clock, a device considered convenient by most consumers.

If the “Fun” Market is chosen, there would be a need to choose a wide distribution to reach the most consumers. However, Nanda should be careful to avoid a distributor that is too big, as she may lose control of future product development, especially considering Clocky is still in the prototype stage. Therefore, choosing a mid-sized retailer, such as Best Buy or Target (among others)