Ergo, the direct link between product innovation and marketing. When developing a new product, Nine West might encounter difficulties at any one of the following eight stages: idea generation, idea screening, concept development and testing, marketing strategy development, business analysis, product development, market testing and commercialization. The main challenge occurs at the sixth level, when Nine West has to invest considerable amounts of money into producing the new shoes or accessories. If any mistakes have occurred within the previous levels, the company will be faced with the possibility of losing their investment or producing an unsatisfactory product, and consequently losing clients.

In regard to product planning, the management at Nine West has to decide upon the design of the products, the sizes of the new shoes, the quantity produced, the materials they need to use and the quality standards they have to implement. The management makes their final decisions after having consulted with all departments within the company. The sales and marketing department informs the managers in regard to the customers' demands; the finance and accounting department communicates the available budget and the production department informs the management in regard to the quantity and quality of the necessary materials. Once the decisions are made, managers will develop and implement strategies on both product line and product mix levels.

Nine West products, like the majority of products, go through four stages of life: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. During the introduction stage,...

During the growth stages, Nine West implements promotional strategies that focus on the benefits of their products and which are aimed towards the consolidation of the target market. Once the shoes and accessories have reached market maturity, the company has to implement strategies that revolutionize the product, in order to recapture the clients' interest. In the decline stages, Nine West ceases to make further investments in the product and emphasises on developing a new line of shoes and accessories.
Given the obvious success of the shoe and accessories company, one could easily say that Nine West possesses one of the best marketing teams in the world and that they implement the most appropriate and efficient marketing strategies.

Bibliography

2007, Official Website of Nine West, http://www.ninewest.com/n/index.s, last accessed on October 18, 2007

Kotler, P., Keller, K.L., 2006, a Framework for Marketing Management, Prentice Hall

Peppers, Rogers, October 1, 2002, Targeted e-mail messaging is sure fit for Nine West, Search CRM, http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid11_gci854024,00.html?topic=299771,last accessed on October 17, 2007

2007, Official Website of Nine West

Peppers, Rogers, October 1, 2002, Targeted e-mail messaging is sure fit for Nine West, Search CRM

2007, Official Website of Nine West

Kotler, P., Keller, K.L., 2006, a Framework for Marketing Management, Prentice Hall