Published by: Nuru
Published date: 21 Mar 2022
Implications of Marketing strategies in the Product Cycle
The stages of the life cycle, the time span of the entire life cycle, and the shapes of the cycle will vary by product. As a result, it is very difficult to predict when the next stage will appear, how long will it last, and what levels sales will reach. External factors such as the economy, rate of inflation, and consumer life cycle may have a major impact on the performance of a product and shorten or lengthen its life cycle. Therefore, a product's stage in the life cycle cannot be judged accurately. A company may not be able to manage the product life cycle, however, the life cycle of the product may be extended to some extent through effective marketing.
Effective marketing may attract a new market segment, find a new use for the product, or generate increased dealer support. Most of the companies are engaged in self-fulfilling prophecies, whereby they predict sales will decline and then ensure this will occur by removing marketing support. With adequate support, these products might not fail.
Hence, a marketer has to adopt different marketing strategies in different stages of the product life cycle. The various implications of different marketing strategies as per the stages of the product life cycle are explained below:
Product strategy: This strategy involves introducing a new product to the market.
Price strategy: In this stage, when a product is a new penetration pricing strategy is adopted primarily.
Place strategy: Here intensive distribution for convenient products is carried out.
Promotion strategy: Since the product is new to the market, all product promotional tools are implemented. The advertisement campaign should be informative and cover a larger size of the market.
Product strategy: In this state, marketing of the existing product is carried out. If possible, the product will be expanded with a great focus on product mix strategy.
Price strategy: Cost pricing strategy is implemented.
Place strategy: The focus here is expanding distribution outlets for the effective distribution of products.
Promotion strategy: In this stage, promotion cost is minimized with the focus more on mass communication. Moreover, advertising objectives should be persuasive rather than informative.
Competitive strategy: Since the competition starts with a few rivals, one should try to establish a competitive position in the market.
Product strategy: The foremost thing to do in maturity is to add new performance to the existing product. Moreover, there should be a high emphasis on product positioning.
Price strategy: In this stage, the price of the product is determined by the competitiveness of the market. Hence, it is important to set a price that is competitive.
Price strategy: The focus should be on the expansion of leader distribution outlets.
Promotion strategy: This stage demands more investment in promotion. here, the emphasis should be on using various forms of sales promotion tools. the advertising campaign should be focused more on psychological persuasion
Market segmentation strategy: A major resource of the company should be invested in carefully segmenting the market and working accordingly.
Competitive strategy: In this stage, the marketer should identify the major competitors and should carry out a SWOT analysis in reference to them.
Product strategy: The major implication here is to differentiate the product. One should also focus on improving product performance, packaging, labeling, etc.
Price strategy: As the product is at saturation stage, the price of the product should be reduced so that customers get benefit in buying it. It means less emphasis on profit and more emphasis on customer satisfaction.
Place strategy: One should work with the existing distribution outlets.
Promotion strategy: The focus should be on the excessive use of sales promotion strategies.
Market segmentation strategy: One should give more emphasis on customer needs and satisfaction rather on profit. It is advisable to search for a new market.
Competition strategy: Try to adopt both attack and safe strategies.
Product strategy: In this stage, a marketer should search for new opportunities.
Price strategy: When the product is at the decline stage, this strategy has almost zero impact.
Place strategy: Same as to the price strategy, it also does not work in this stage.
Promotion strategy: There should be less emphasis on adopting any kind of promotional strategy.
Market segmentation strategy: In this stage, it is better to quit the existing market and enter into the new one.