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

　　保持市场份额

　　最近你们公司的剃须刀市场份额在减少。公司请你们负责调查这种情况。讨论并决定：

　　l 公司剃须刀市场份额减少的原因有哪些

　　l 应该采取什么措施来提高剃须刀的市场份额

　　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: 我们公司的剃须刀市场份额最近有所减少。上周我们实施了市场调查，这些是活动调查的结果。让我们来调查一下，是什么原因导致我们丧失剃须刀市场的份额。

　　B：好的。从调查来看，我了解到20%的客户认为他们不会把我公司的产品作为首选，因此我们产品的范围并不是是的，足够宽广。

　　A：是的，我同意。你知道10%的客户认为另一个问题是我们的产品很难处理。

　　B：而且上个月，一个新的竞争者进入市场。在短期内，占领了8%的市场份额。

　　A：毋庸置疑我们的市场份额正在下降。

　　B：现在，让我们看一下要采取什么措施来改善这种情况。看起来我们必须扩大目前的产品范围来保持我们的市场地位。

　　A：是这样的。我们必须增加产品种类。但是这还不够，我们还必须修改我们的产品来改善客户满意度。其他需要我们做什么呢?

　　B：我们可以彻底的开发新产品，你知道，竞争非常激烈，为了保持竞争力，我们不得不开发新的产品。

　　A：你是对的。我们必须这样做。虽然开发新产品风险大成本高。

　　B：我们是否应该考虑降价?

　　A：我不认为这种方法可行。降价将会影响我们产品的形象。但是我们可以运用印花税、赠品、免费的样品等等手段来增加销售额。

　　B：是的，促销将对保持市场份额很有用。

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

　　你认为有必要成立新产品开发委员会来开发新产品吗?(为什么?)

　　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?)

　　你认为现存的产品寻找新的市场很重要吗?(为什么?)

　　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?

　　你知道为什么许多新产品未能成功开发吗?

　　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?

　　你认为新产品开发创意的来源是什么?

　　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?

　　你觉得市场测试存在哪些问题?

　　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.