ABSTRACT
Product planning is very important to a company because, when done properly, it can reduce resource expenditures, drive revenues, and generate profitability. The nature of these objectives exemplifies the strategic implications that product planning poses for a company in pursuit of successful new products. The company process called product planning is formally defined as the process of envisioning, conceptualizing, developing, producing, testing, commercializing, sustaining, and disposing of organizational offerings to satisfy consumer needs and wants and achieve organizational objectives. Product management represents the back-end process, where the product or service is commercialized, sustained, and, eventually, disposed. Product management includes the launch endeavor, along with all activities that occur after the launch. The characteristics of width, depth, and consistency can be illustrated with the product mixes of Pillsbury and Verizon. Visualizing the product mix as a hierarchy of products helps product planners address a number of issues.
