Chapter 11 - Developing and Managing Products

The Birth of a Program...

    The Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is the mother of all companies that cherish a birth of a new product, typically those being the introduction of a new service or program. Hence, like all mothers would do, the BGCA invests a lot of effort to ensure the longevity of their product's life cycle. The longer the programs or services remains popular, the more sales and public funding the BGCA receives in order to stay in business. This explains why most of their newly introduced programs and services become annual, depending on the turnout.

Source: http://www.web-books.com/eLibrary/NC/B0/B66/076MB66.html

     In the introductory stage of any product, it is tested to see how profitable it can make your business. This test makes or breaks further development of the product in it's life cycle. When any BGCA facility introduces a new program, they invest a lot of time, effort, and finances to establish profitable turnouts. The more people that attend these programs and enjoy them, the better it looks for potential sponsors; and it creates a greater chance the program will be brought back the next year.

Here are two programs currently in the introductory stage:

• Raise the Roots - Boys and Girls Club and Family Center of Bristol, CT
• Strike for Kids - Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago 

   
    When the program passes it's test and is deemed a success, the club promotes the program for the next year during it's growth stage. During this stage, word of mouth reaches out to new members and those who enjoyed last year's event come back again. Since programs and services are being promoted in this situation, the growth stage ends when events become sold out. The goal of any club facility in this stage is to up the ante from last year to make the event better. Clubs may do this by bringing in well-known guest speakers (sometimes celebrities or athletes), implementing more innovative activities that teach youths about the cause, or even staging the event in different parts of the country.

Here are two programs currently in the growth stage:

• Iron Skullz MC 2nd Annual Poker Run - Boys and Girls Clubs of Gloucester and Mathews, VA
• Kenny Perry 2nd Annual Charity Golf Invitational - Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford County

     
    Now a program reaches a point where seats are filled on a "first come, first serve" basis, this is the product's maturity stage. Each facility hosting the program still tries to improve the program each year, but less effort is needed to promote the program. Usually when a program is up its 10th, 20th, or 30th annual event, the program has reached maturity and is a prominent event in the community. A matured program can be the long-term bread winner for a club facility, but it can also strike fame to a club because of something unique - a characteristic sponsors take interest to.

Here are two programs currently in the maturity stage:

• Youth of the Year (est. 1946) - Participating Clubs
• 63rd Annual Woman's Board Summer Ball - Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago

   
    Lastly, the stage that the Boys and Girls Clubs of America fears the most is the - decline stage. Like some products on the market, the target market loses interest, or it is replaced by a better product during its growth stage. A strategy the Boys and Girls Club uses in order to maintain a good publicity is that they do not disclose programs that are on the decline or have been terminated. Publicizing a failed program would be detrimental to their reputation. Instead, most clubs remain positive about it by replacing the programs with a new and improved ones.