Question

The product life cycle helps to inform decisions made by marketing managers. Examine two products that you are familiar with, one that is in the early stages of the product life cycle and one in the mature stage.

• How is the marketing different for the two products?

• What improvements to the marketing strategy would you recommend for each if you were the marketing manager?

Your Discussion should be a minimum of 250 words in length and not more than 750 words. Please include a word count. Use APA citations and references for the textbook and any other sources used.

Answer 1

answer-

the product life cycle is the sequential cycle of stages through which every product goes. the steps involved in PLC are the introduction, growth, maturity, and decline stages.(Anderson and Zeithaml, 1984) .The PLC is an essential tool in the hands of marketing managers because by using this, they make and change their marketing strategy depending on the product is present at what stage.( Anderson & Zeithaml, Carl R. & Carl P., 1984).

In this discussion, I will tell you about two products at different stages of PLC. One product at its early stages is wireless Bluetooth earphones Like Apple's earpod. This product is at its growth stage while another product is traditional manual gear cars which are at maturity stage, and its demand is maxed out and started to decline. Even though these are different products from different industries, one key factor common in both is technology.

For these products, the marketing is different like for Earpods of iPhone at growth stage, the marketing is customers get to know about the presence of the new product, and they are very keen to purchase this product. At this stage, the marker tries to invest more so that its demand increases more and more. For that, marketing involves TV ads, Social media marketing, sales promotion, etc.

While second product, which is at the decline stage, needs less marketing because the demand is declining at this stage. Instead of investing in marketing, they try to innovate the product so that the innovative product can create more order.

If I were the marketing manager, the improvements I would make in earpods are making them waterproof, including promotions like discounts, free offers like movie tickets, and gift vouchers to improve this product's demand and marketing strategy.

For Traditional manual cars, I would try to innovate the car by making car manual to auto gear cars so that we can use marketing strategies like social media ads, sample drives to customers, etc., to create demand for the vehicles.

ref-

Anderson, C. and Zeithaml, C. (1984). Stage of the Product Life Cycle, Business Strategy, and Business Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 27(1), pp.5-24.

Anderson & Zeithaml, Carl R. & Carl P. (Mar 1984). "Stage of the Product Life Cycle, Business Strategy, and Business Performance". The Academy of Management Journal.27 (1): 5–24.

Answer 2

There are four primary stages in a life cycle of a product with an additional 5 when the product is brand new.

An additional stage is development, it only applies to the product and service that are brand new and was not previously on the market. It takes time, money, and human resources to create something new so this stage usually takes place behind the curtain, there may be some attempts to create product awareness at this stage yet this strategy is questionable.

1.      Introduction
once a product has been developed, the first stage is its introduction stage. In this stage, the product is being released into the market. When a new product is released, it is often a high-stakes time in the product's life cycle - although it does not necessarily make or break the product's eventual success.

During the introduction stage, marketing and promotion are at a high - and the company often invests the most in promoting the product and getting it into the hands of consumers.

2.      Growth
by the growth stage, consumers are already taking to the product and increasingly buying it. The product concept is proven and is becoming more popular - and sales are increasing.
Other companies become aware of the product and its space in the market, which is beginning to draw attention and increasingly pull in revenue. If competition for the product is especially high, the company may still heavily invest in advertising and promotion of the product to beat out competitors.

3.      Maturity
when a product reaches maturity, its sales tend to slow or even stop - signaling a largely saturated market. At this point, sales can even start to drop. Pricing at this stage can tend to get competitive, signaling margin shrinking as prices begin falling due to the weight of outside pressures like competition or lower demand. Marketing at this point is targeted at fending off competition, and companies will often develop new or altered products to reach different market segments.

4.      Decline
although companies will generally attempt to keep the product alive in the maturity stage as long as possible, the decline for every product is inevitable.
In the decline stage, product sales drop significantly and consumer behavior changes as there is less demand for the product. The company's product loses more and more market share, and competition tends to cause sales to deteriorate.

 

 

References

Moore, G., A. (2006, August 1). Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech. Products to Mainstream Customers Paperback. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0060517123

 

Answer 3

The product life cycle helps to inform decisions made bymarketing managers. Examine two products that