product liability

Examples of product liability in the following topics:

• Applicable Legislation

  • Examples of product liability in action: Two Maryland men decided to dry their hot air balloon in a commercial laundry dryer.
  • We will briefly discuss the three areas receiving the most notice in marketing: product liability, deregulation, and consumer protection.
  • Liability can even result if a court or a jury decides that a product's design, construction, or operating instructions and safety warnings make the product unreasonably dangerous to use.
  • Many feel that product liability law is now as it should be—in favor of the injured product user.
  • Consumer advocates like Ralph Nader argue that for too long, product liability favored producers at the expense of the product user.

• Product Quality

  • The specifications guide product and service design, process design, production of goods and delivery of services, and service after the sale or delivery.
  • Some of these consequences of poor quality include loss of business, liability, decreased productivity, and increased costs.
  • When making designs, designers must keep in mind customer wants, production or service capabilities, safety and liability, costs, and other similar considerations.
  • Designing a product with "ease of use" increases the chances that the product will be used in its intended design and it will continue to function properly and safely.
  • Customers are willing to pay a very steep price for this product.

• Customer Concerns

  • This is especially true for business-to-business (B2B) companies where stakeholders often provide constructive criticism to help marketing, sales, and technical departments adapt product offerings to meet changing customer needs.
  • Customer concerns may arise due to issues over product quality or functionality.
  • Mass product recalls are examples of company efforts to limit liability or avoid costly legal penalties due to corporate negligence.
  • Account or sales managers are often a B2B company's first line of defense when it comes to flagging and responding to customer complaints regarding service disruptions or product malfunctions.
  • B2B brands often assign cross-functional teams – sales representatives, developers, product specialists, and call center professionals – to oversee individual client accounts.

• Types of Businesses

  • Primary ownership types of businesses include corporations, cooperatives, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), limited liability companies (LLCs) and sole proprietorships.
  • The business owner has unlimited liability for the debts incurred by the business.
  • Businesses also vary by industry due to the wide variety of products and service they offer to the market.
  • Agriculture and mining businesses are concerned with the production of raw material, such as plants or minerals.
  • Manufacturers create products from raw materials or component parts, which they then sell at a profit.

• Product Line Breadth

  • The product mix breadth is five.
  • What products will be offered (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line)?
  • You may also hear the product line breadth referred to as the product width, product assortment width, and merchandize breadth.
  • The product mix (sometimes called "product assortment") is made up of both product lines and individual products.
  • An individual product is a particular product within a product line.

• Organizational Requirements for Product Development and Management

  • Product development combined with product marketing make up the product management function within an organization.
  • Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle.
  • Product development – the process of bringing new products to the marketplace – combined with product marketing, make up the product management function that oversees the launch of a company's new products.
  • A product manager investigates, selects, and develops one or more tangible products for an organization.
  • However, product management also deals with intangible products, such as music, information, and services.

• Product Orientation

  • A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly concerned with the quality of its product.
  • Similar to production orientation, the product orientation of marketing focuses solely on the product a company intends to sell.
  • A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly concerned with the quality of its product.
  • A firm such as this would assume that as long as its product was of a high standard, people would buy and consume the product.
  • Consumers recognize product quality and differences in the performance of alternative products.

• Characteristics of the Product

  • The unique characteristics of a product should be used as inputs in determining the product's marketing mix.
  • The characteristics of the product are the features and elements that differentiate it from other products on the market.
  • Product characteristics help determine the marketing mix, potential target market and the pricing of a product.
  • Characteristics of a product also help to determine the price of a product.
  • The characteristics of a product determine the target market and price of a product.

• When to Modify Products

  • While the decision to modify products happens ideally at the design stage, products can be changed during any phase of the life cycle.
  • The product life cycle (PLC) encompasses the multiple phases products pass through during their 'life' in the market.
  • Stakeholders typically contribute input during product development, demanding something different from the product designer and design process.
  • Other products are never re-introduced and deleted entirely from the product roadmap.
  • While some products are completely new innovations, others are simply minor modifications to existing products.

• The Product Life Cycle

  • Product development and product life cycles go hand-in-hand.
  • The product life cycle (PLC) describes the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures.
  • Products have a limited life and, thus, every product has a life cycle.
  • The product life cycle begins with the introduction stage (see ).
  • A good product manager should find new products to replace those that are in the declining stage of their life cycles; learning how to manage products optimally as they move from one stage to the next.