Period 5

Things are not going too well at the moment…We have dropped down to 3rd and Teams I and U are really close to us.

If you have read the industry newsletter this period there are three new Vodites in the market (two from Team A and one from Team I). They are all very high-end products with base costs around $400 and pricing in the range of $1000. Last period we were forced to order less Vodite market research studies due to insufficient funds for R&D. We are no longer 100% confident that that our Vodites currently under R&D will appeal to the Vodites target markets given that they are comparatively less sophisticated than the Vodites being offered by Teams I and U.

As for Sonites, we got rid of most of the SONY inventory but unfortunately we have loads of SOLD leftover. We are continually losing our competitive positioning and market share in the Sonites market because our Sonites are not aligned closely enough to their respective target markets (after everyone’s modified their products). In light of this situation, we are planning for most of our budget to be spent on modifying our Sonite products to better target them to their intended segments. A new tool we have picked up on is the advertising experiment research study which gives us an idea of where we are overspending on advertising in the previous period — from this study we now know we can cut down advertising and spend that additional portion of the budget on the remaining R&D of PVOVO (which is expected to be launched next period under the name VOTI).

It is frustrating that we sacrificed our opportunity to gain first-mover advantage in the Vodite market because we did not have a big enough budget this period. Regardless, we believe that being risk averse will help us bounce back from financial hardship as opposed to dig ourselves deeper into trouble. The plan with respect to launching VOTI is to get more information on the Vodite market rather than enter it with a “pure guessing” strategy.

We know we will be able to get back to the top. It is just a matter of time, and maybe luck (we definitely need some luck when we launch VOTI!).

Period 4

Despite exceptional performances by SOLD and SOBO (both had 50% plus growth in volume sold), we dropped to 2nd this period. SONY did not sell well this period and that really hurt us — there is a large amount of inventory leftover. Significant repositioning of this product will have to be the top priority for next period.

We noticed that Team I is starting to jump up the stock price index and they have moved into 1st this period. We are weary that we must protect our competitive position and make some attempts to curb Team I’s rapid progress. Because we do not have enough budget to complete our R&D for our Vodites, we will allocate part of the required budget to PVOVO (not the PVOLT because we believe that PVOVO, a mid-range product would require less modifying in the future than would a low-end product) and then dedicate the remaining difference next period. We may be losing the first mover advantage but our risk-adverse management team is looking for more stable profits so as to maintain our stock price for fear of it dropping even further down.

Planning ahead, we are also developing two new R&D feasibility studies (PSOHO and PSOBE) this period hoping to modify SONY and SOBO upon R&D completion. These modifications would help us better target SONY and SOBO to the Singles market, which is showing drastic growth in the coming periods according to the market forecast we purchased.

So that’s a lot of R&D projects…and they are expensive! We will have to cut advertising costs next period in order to spare money for all of the R&D that is on the go. At this point we feel that R&D is a key strategic tool in terms of evolving stagnant products and realigning them with new, growing segments. We are also ordering less Vodites research studies this period. This is going to be a sacrifice of short run sales for long run profits. We believe it will be more valuable to the company’s overall success to go with this strategy. We know that this is going to be a hard time for our company but we are committed to long term success and not just short term gains.

Period 3

We rank first this period! :-)


Our modification of SOLD was very successful — it resulted in enormous growth in volume sold. According to plan, SOBO was a huge success in the Buffs market. Not only did it capture a huge market share in the Buffs segment, it also “bumped” SASS away from the Buffs. These positive results are great but we know we will have to continue to modify SOBO or it will end up like SASS this period.

As the industry progresses and all the teams are proving more profitable, their budgets are growing thus allowing them to spend more on R&D. Of note are teams A and I who are spending a substantial amount on R&D; it seems that they are launching highly specialized products next period. To ensure our competitiveness, we are also actively participating in R&D for both Sonites and Vodites. We are developing a new product with a new R&D project, PSONY. This new product (SONY) is expected to be launched next period to first capture the Buffs market (as the Buffs are interested in new technology), then to the Singles market in the long run (because the Singles market will be growing by over 135% in the next 5 periods according to the market forecast research study).


We are also investing in two new R&D feasibility studies on two Vodites:

1.) PVOLT – with the worst possible product specifications so as to minimize production cost; and

2.) PVOVO – a mid-level product.

Because no other teams have launched a Vodite this period we could not do any research on the market, we are totally “shooting in the dark,” trying to predict the preferences of the Innovators in the Vodites market.