"New products and services can be the lifeline for any company. Bringing these products to market, however, can be challenging.  To effectively compete in an increasingly complex and aggressive marketplace, you need to have a thorough understanding of all the internal and external forces that will impact the new product's profitability and, ultimately, the corporation's survival."

• Establish firm marketing goals. It should be clear to all internal constituents from the outset what the objectives are and what success will look like.

• Know your customers. Be clear about who your customers are and what they want. Keep in mind that people buy what they want to buy, not necessarily what they need to buy.

• Know your competition. Determine if your competitors have similar new products or services and how they plan to market them. Adapt your own marketing efforts accordingly, considering the 4 Ps of marketing-product, pricing, promotion and place or point of sale.

• Customize your marketing strategy. You're product is unique. Your marketing strategy should be too. With so many marketing variables to control, you can create a distinctive marketing plan, even in a crowded marketplace.

• Identify your unique selling point. This is the key factor that enables your product or service to stand out from competitors. The differentiating claim need not address the most important attribute of your product, but must be compelling and meaningful. For instance, the unique selling point of peanut butter could be an unbreakable jar.

• Pricing is crucial. Your pricing decisions need to be based on a combination of your own goals and the pricing strategies of the competition. In general, with quality being similar, pricing below competitors will result in high volume and relatively low margin, while pricing at the high end of the market will yield lower volume but higher margin.

• Sell the experience. Successful marketing fulfills a customer's hopes, wishes and dreams. Beyond offering a quality product, consider the customer's total experience. Design your packaging, your product presentation, your marketing copy and your distribution channel to enhance the total customer experience.

• Reach your market. Make sure your message reaches potential customers when they are most likely to be thinking about or buying your product. This may mean using multiple media channels at different times of the day, month or year, depending on the product's usage life or purchase cycle.

PASS

• High-performing team despite personal differences.  Sandy and Jennifer M. were able to put aside their personal differences in favor of working together as a team to achieve their business objective. They kept on task and showed the ability to exercise emotional self-control, despite previous personal conflict. They worked together creatively and collaboratively to achieve the goals of their team and won (handily) as a result.
   

• Creative sales strategy.  Sandy and Jennifer M. came up with a creative sales strategy of dressing like twins to promote their M&M product in the Wall Street district. No one can argue that packaging sells. They won as a result of their creativity using sex appeal (in an acceptable fashion) in selling the product at a premium price.
   

• Pricing fundamentals.  Pricing effectively is one of the fundamentals of sales and marketing. Sandy and Jennifer M. understood that, with fewer bars to sell, they needed to price their product higher to win. The challenge with this strategy is to create something that the customer is willing to spend more money to buy. In Sandy and Jennifer M.'s case, it was all in the presentation. Their presentation was cute, sexy and appealing to both men and women.

  FAIL

• Lack of dignity, respect and poor judgment. Ivana stooped to a new low when she chose to drop her skirt as a sales tactic to sell a candy bar for $20. Did she honestly think that Trump was going to hire her to lead one of his companies after she dropped her skirt for $20 on national television?  You simply can't be an effective leader without consistently displaying dignity and respect, for others and for yourself. You have to earn respect from a team. How can you possibly earn respect when you are dropping your clothes to make money? As a professional woman, I am troubled that some female candidates on "The Apprentice" have modeled poor judgment, and at times, a complete lack of respect for themselves and others. We have witnessed several of the women this season displaying stereotypic female inappropriate behavior in the workplace. These women have provided a very poor standard and example for women in business and for the many young women watching this show.  Women are succeeding in boardrooms, corporations and running their own businesses across America today with traits such as integrity, emotional and intellectual intelligence and core business and leadership skills, not by disrespecting themselves and others.
   

• A leadership title does not necessarily equate to leadership.  While Ivana had the position of the leader, that alone was not enough for her team to be inspired. She led with no process, no boundaries, no contingency, and an ineffective strategy. To lead effectively requires offering teams direction, protection, order and inspiration. Successful leaders communicate decision-making guidelines, goals and clear expectations to followers.  When confronted with her opponent's superior strategy, Ivana's response was to call them "cheap hookers" and drop her own skirt to make a sale. As the leader, she should have gathered her team back to revise a new improved strategy to compete. Instead, both Kevin and Kelly just stood around watching Ivana and her desperate attempts to make a sale.
   

• Boundaries.  Trump's savvy deputy Carolyn asked Ivana: "Wouldn't you agree, you weren't selling a candy bar?" There is a fine line between using attractive men and women who utilize their sex appeal to capture attention and dropping your skirt for money. Corporations such as Calvin Klein and Victoria Secret have made tremendous profits by packaging sex appeal. However, I totally agree with Carolyn's statement that Ivana wasn't selling a candy bar when she was flashing her panties.
   

• Authority.  As team leader for Apex, Ivana failed to establish any decision-making guidelines or authority boundaries with her team. As a result, she had no control or authority over Kevin when he elected to drop his sales price without getting her approval. Ivana's response was: "I don't know why Kevin undercut the price on his own." Her response indicates her lack of decision-making authority or understanding of how vital authority is for team success. Like a well-run football team, there is no doubt about who is the quarterback and who makes the play calls. Kevin made a bad play, without regard for the rest of the team or the leader's consent. The result was predictable and a safety for the other team.

  Leaders should begin with teams by communicating what decision-making style they will utilize. Leaders can choose from the primary styles of autocratic, consultative, delegation, majority vote or consensus. Different styles are more or less appropriate for different situations. For example, in a crisis, an autocratic style offers a leader immediate control. Consensus can be time consuming and challenging to achieve but results in greater buy-in and commitment from a team. The mistake that many leaders make is in failing to communicate what decision-making style the team will use and understanding how critical decisions will be made or enforced.

MAUREEN MORIARTY
SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER