Therm-Eze: A Case Study: Baby Boomer

Therm-eze
Executive Summary

Title: The positioning of a product that is new to a market that is rather quite old.
Date: February 12th, 2008
Type of Summary: O Action O Discussion O Information

Identification of Problem:
Therm-eze, a reusable heating pad, had its distribution rights given to Mr. Mark Tanner who decided recently, after much consideration, that he wanted to manage this innovative product.
Although this product offers something very different and beneficial to customers, there are still many major factors to consider in terms of competition and what market segment to go after.
Major Problem- to develop a successful strategy in market that is currently outdated and unchanged.

Organizational Objectives:
The
objective for the Tanner Company is to target the right audience for Therm-eze. Since Mark Tanner bought the rights to the product from the earliest product stage possible, there will be a lot of effort placed in finding out who the target audience will be first, and then developing ways of getting to this audience as much as possible.
Their objective is quite important for the success of this product because they only have one chance of getting it right, this has led to effective research of the suspected target audiences and how each segment viewed the product. As well as constructive insights on the current competition, which in fact are no where near comparable to the benefits offered by Therm-eze.

"With a good marketing program Therm-eze can achieve a market share of up to 50%"
- Richard McKay
Alternatives:
These alternatives have been selected through the research that was accomplished with having focus groups, current "heat treatment" market situation, competitive analysis, demographics of their market and geographic insight (location and quantity for hospitals, retailers, households, etc.)

Taking advantage of the Lab Coat, Halo Effect
By targeting the institutional market, Therm-eze would be able to take advantage of the medical trust as a marketing tactic. This product will work well for the medical sector since they are looking for a product that is cost effective and bears little risk to use.
The financial numbers provided by our company shows to be very optimistic however in assuming that all hospitals need new heating pads, which is false because many clinics require using up their current stock.
An advantage of this alternative would be reaching a wide variety of our market; people with arthritis, sports injuries, etc., and initiating the first use while they are in the hospital and then spark interest when they see the benefits and want one for themselves.
This being said however, as a company that is first starting out we will be unable to target both retailers and medical industries at the same time, at least for the first few years, because it is very expensive and would require more assistance.

Baby Boomers who wish to be doing less babying and more booming.
The demographic of baby boomers consists of a large group who want to live their life to the fullest, they have retirement plans of traveling the world, spoiling their grand children and buying the luxury items they have worked so hard to deserve. They are not going to "admit" that they have to deal with aging problems, but at the same time are not willing to turn down help with problems that are slowing them down.
If targeting this market, the product would benefit from appearing to be an arthritis aid, which can be easy to package since they have not yet designed anything. By approaching the market through retail there is a continuous flow of interested consumers, and financially much larger in scale.
Recommendations:
Although the medical market would be cost effective initially, they are a very limited market when looking into growth. This industry is very hard to get into and would require a lot of trial and error with industries that already have contracts and usable/similar products for this issue.
Targeting the consumer market would open up the doors for Therm-eze, through effective packaging and a strong marketing campaign to gain this new approach into a "retired feeling" market.
Since the major decision is to create an effective strategy in this market, going through the usual institutional market we are limiting ourselves and blending in with the competition. By appealing to the consumers, "baby boomers", in such a way that they see the benefits the response of Therm-eze will be much higher then targeting the medical field.