Product Development

Armstrong and Kotler (2012) define product development as, “Developing the product concept into physical product to ensure that the product idea can be turned into a workable market offering”.  Hair et al (2011) explains that product development gives the engineering department, although in this case a new sport organisation. Which constructs a prototype of the product, for the purpose of developing a marketing strategy, in order to generate a product concept consisting of the branding, packaging, advertising and etcetera. For many organisations and companies product development offers the opportunity for the initial idea to be transformed into a working concept. However this process of development may take a week, a month or years to generate. Once the product is constructed it is then able to undergo testing and sampling, in order to gain vital insight and feedback that could potentially go towards improving the product.

In 2012, a landlady won a court battle with the Barclays Premier League over broadcasting live matches using a Greek TV decoder to show games (BBC News, 2012). Karen Murphy was fined £8,000 for the use of a decoder in the Portsmouth pub. However, the case was taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which ruled in the landlady’s favour. Outlining the use of freedom of European trade and there was no copyright involving the football match, only the extra’s SKY and ESPN offered at the time. Nevertheless, since this case the Premier League have protected its idea through product development. Using the intellectual property consisting of the brand, logo, slogans and commentary being incorporated within the matches. Moreover, the organisation is surrounding the product with more legal protection regarding broadcasting rights. Enabling the product to be improved and has since been successful in the attempt to protect the product against unauthorised avenues. As a landlord discovered upon losing a recent court case regarding, the use of a foreign satellite and breaking copy right law (BBC News, 2014).

The sports organisation within question (TriXtreme) has the potential to broadcast the idea to a global audience, which can be designed into a World Series league similar to the Red Bull Cliff Diving or an annual event such as the BUPA Great North Run. However the idea does not have any legal protection from competitors potentially stealing the concept. Therefore, by creating a logo and a brand as shown within figure 1.

Figure 1: Logo.

    

The organisation is able to protect the product idea through the use of copyright, Patents, design right and trademark. Enabling the organisation to create a sellable product. That can entice potential sponsors and the selling of broadcasting rights, which will provide the organisation with vital revenue needed for the creation of and the sustaining of the new sport.  

References

BBC News, (2012). Pub landlady wins TV court case. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17150054 [Accessed 21 Jan. 2015].

BBC News, (2014). Pub broke law showing live football. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-25968200 [Accessed 21 Jan. 2015].

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of Marketing. 14th ed.

McDaniel, C., Lamb, C. and Hair, J. (2011). Introduction to marketing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.