Day 1
Product management
Key factors when managing products today
– The Product Life Cycle
– Classifying the product portfolio
– Successful product positioning
– Understanding the customer base and identifying gaps in the product range
– Identifying when a product needs to change
The vital tools for increased revenue growth
– Key drivers to growing product revenue
– The tools for effective product management
– Management reporting for ongoing success
Our partners in growth
– Using customer touch points efficiently to optimise cross sales
– The importance of the end to end process
– The role of customer services and operations
– Getting stakeholder buy-in
The key role of strategy
– The impact of brand and business strategy on product portfolios
– The organisational positioning of the product management function
Case study 1: Barclaycard vs. HSBC
Compare and contrast two bank’s product portfolios of credit card products to identify positioning, life cycle stages and where there are gaps in the product range.
Barclaycard and HSBC have adopted different product management strategies and as such their product portfolios are quite different. The case study will be followed by a group discussion as to the merits of each portfolio and delegates can relate this example to their own work place.
Key learning:
– Ideal product portfolio creation methods for your business
– Identify your products in their life cycle
– The gaps that are in your product range
Case study 2: How we can learn from the non banking world
It’s important to also review product re–positioning in other markets outside of financial services. Lucozade (GlaxoSmithkline) is a good example of how a product was re-positioned from a health drink to an isotonic sports drink.
Key learning:
– Develop creative thinking outside of the box
– Delve into the mind of the consumer for fresh ideas
– Keep your products a step ahead of the competition
Group exercise: Identify how a bank can utilise the end to end process to understand and manage their products more effectively.
Delegates will gain insights from all customer touch points including; customer services, operations, marketing and cross sale points.
Day 2
Effective pricing strategy
– Creating a winning pricing strategy
– The Life Cycle of Pricing
– The impact of brand on the price positioning
– The benefit of segmented pricing
– Use of cross sale products to fund core product price
– How upsell can improve yields
Pricing controls
– The governance process of pricing changes
Pricing changes
– Pricing elasticity - increasing price while keeping customers
– The challenges of undertaking market research on price
– How to effectively communicate the value proposition
– The role of communication (internal and external) in the effective management of
– a price increase
Case study 1: Goldfish price increase
The price of the payment protection product was increased significantly in conjunction with improvements to the product. Learn how customers welcomed the product improvements and were prepared to pay the pricing premium based on additional value.
Key lessons:
– How pricing high can be beneficial to customers in valued products
– The solution to effectively communicating pricing changes
– The importance of all customer facing staff to understand the pricing benefits
Group discussion:
Delegates are to share their experiences of pricing in their organisations. Include the impact of product revenues heavily reliant on cross subsidisation. How price changes are controlled, what learnings are there from pricing changes?
New product development
A process for new product development
– The 5 stages key to success
– The application of key theoretical models in practice
– The 10 rules of product development
Making the customer at the heart of product development
– The role of qualitative, quantitative research
– Customer needs mapping
– Alignment of product development to customer segmentation
– Use of feedback loops to identify new product requirements
– The role of brand
Assessment of the market and competition
– Collection of market data and industry trends
– Benchmarking and competitive threat
– Role of regulatory/environmental changes trends and risks
– Evaluate market share potential
Business strategy fit
– The core values of your bank reflected in products
– The financial rate of return needed to succeed
– Leveraging off similar projects already commenced
Day 3
New product development
– Design and build your product for results
– Detailed feasibility assessment of all bank functions
– Critical design functions and elements
– Establish project budget
– Importance of clear detailed project plan
– Role of stakeholders as product champions
– Implement & monitor for continued success
– Pilot (if appropriate)
– Execute product launch (including PR)
– Alert internal communications
– Review performance and customer services
– Monitoring competitor reaction and address accordingly
The impact of technology
– Embracing new technology to innovate
– Understanding internal systems capability on product delivery – when do you compromise
– The advantages and disadvantages of white labelling to expand product ranges
Case study 1: Tesco Financial Services
In The UK Tesco have successfully diversified from a supermarket into Financial Services using its brand strengths to win new customers and become a significant player in the market. This case study will explore the product launch strategy and evolution and in particular the product fit with the core Tesco values.
Key lessons:
– Customer needs mapping revealed a sizable market gap
– How customer segmentation generated a new product suite
– Learn to effectively evaluate market share potential
– Role of regulatory/environmental changes creates opportunities
– Brand and business strategy must support your product range
Case study 2: Impact of new technology Using Kodak as a case study, this provides an example of the importance of understanding cameras on the Kodak processing business. Delegates will identify the potential technological innovations in financials services which provide opportunities in product development and also threats.
Key lessons:
– Our swift reaction to change is vital
– The need to embrace new technology to innovate
– Understanding internal systems capability on product delivery
– How to stay ahead of the competition despite its challenges
Group workshop: From product management to development. Delegates are broken up into groups to examine a hypothetical bank’s product range. The delegates must decide what the best course of action to take to increase product revenue for the bank. Options to consider would be to look at better management tactics, pricing, repositioning, segmentation and/or developing new products.