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Product development is the process of designing, building, operating, and maintaining a good or service. Software and Internet companies use a product development process to ensure that they are not just manufacturing a technology, but creating a product that people will want to buy and continue to use. To be sure, a base technology is at the heart of the product, but product development ensures that the customer’s voice is not lost in the rush to an exciting technology. Product development adds things like pricing, marketing, and customer support to the technology to create a complete product.

Without a product management philosophy and discipline, an IT organization becomes focused on the technology instead of the customers and is often organized along technology lines rather than in ways that benefit the customer. Ultimately, an IT organization must serve its customers or it will go out of business, either because the customers go away or because they complain to executive management until the organization is changed.

Product development is performed by a multi-disciplinary team whose goal is building, operating, and maintaining the product. Team members may include product managers, software developers, project managers, product operations engineers, customer support managers, software quality assurance engineers, user interface design engineers, marketers, financial personnel, and graphic artists.

The product manager serves as the leader of this cross functional team. While the product manager does not necessarily function as the operational manager for these people, she does lead, coordinate, and supervise their work toward the end goal of making the product a reality, launching it, operating it, and managing it throughout its life cycle.

Product management as a discipline is about what the product should be. Product managers are advocates for the customer’s needs and desires. A large product might have numerous product managers working towards its success at a variety of levels, all the way from the junior product manager writing specifications about single feature sets to a product strategy director who has overall responsibility to executive management for the product direction. A product manager’s responsibilities include the following:

Defining and planning product lines and product enhancements
Managing product contracts and sales
Setting strategic direction based on customer needs and business goals
Interpreting strategic goals into operational tasks
Making proposals to senior management regarding implications of proposed plans
Serving as a representative to internal and external clients. Taking the lead in establishing tactical plans and objectives
Developing and implementing administrative and operational matters ensuring achievement of objectives
Evaluating risks and trade-offs
Proposing contingency plans
Analyzing business processes and creating applications to improve or support those processes
Branding
Working with graphic designers to create look and feel
Defining navigational flow and user experience
Defining feature sets and scooping releases

People not familiar with the discipline of product management frequently get a product manager confused with other players.

As per industry experts, the herbal industry is driving substantial growth in the market as consumers around the world are making a dramatic shift towards organic and natural products as compared to chemical products. Currently there are many herbal products manufacturers striving to create a global shift towards these products. The concept of ‘total well being’ and overall global wellness has gained worldwide acceptance.

Over the last few decades herbal products have gained immense popularity which has resulted into a fairly competitive market and compelled herbal products manufacturers to introduce new and innovative marketing strategies to maximize profits and enhance business interests. Also, herbal products have paved way into our everyday lives owing to proven benefits such as, being non-toxic, natural and cost effective as compared to modern day cosmetics and medicines.

Owing to globalization and increase in competition it is very important for herbal product manufacturers to formulate new marketing strategies to maximize profit and generate further business. With the acceptance of herbal products in the west, the demand for these products has been multiplied in the last few decades. However, it is a daunting task for herbal product manufacturers to reach their target consumers and ensure their product is marketed in the right consumer segment.

With the advent of internet, the gap between herbal product manufacturers and consumers has been reduced to a great extent. There are various online portals and websites available which provide consumers information about various herbal product manufacturers and distributors. Consumers can not only access all the information about their choice of products but also place orders and give adequate feedback to the manufacturers to improve the overall quality of products.

Internet also helps consumers understand the production techniques employed by manufacturers for producing a particular product. Company websites and profiles contain information such as:

• Licenses pertaining to Hygiene Regulation, Hazard Analysis and critical control point.
• Adherence to standard operating industry procedures.
• Overall information on Quality Management and Resource and Product Management

The above mentioned information gives consumers the confidence to explore a manufacturer’s range of products and helps strengthen the manufacturer consumer relationship. Also, it helps herbal products manufacturer increase their market visibility and client base. Investors always make decisions based on market reputation and customer satisfaction and positive testimonials from satisfied clients will ensure positive results.

Herbal product manufacturers can further increase their business interests and consumer base by regularly updating product information and availability. It is no longer impossible to acquire products made in different countries, as technology has helped consumers order products made in different parts of the world. Internet is definitely a great medium to touch base with both prospective clients and consumers; however, manufacturers need to ensure registration with authentic portals and websites to get the desired results. Herbal product manufacturers can also make use of communication tools such as live chat and email to contact customers and clients. In order to achieve business objectives herbal products manufacturers have to adopt new strategies and marketing practices and be well versed with the latest technology trends.