Product
The Journey of a Product
Have you ever wondered how a product is created? Can you think of a product that was a big hit back in the day but not available now? Some say that a product has a life cycle like Mother Nature. A bird drops a seed on the ground; the seed starts to sprout; shoots out leaves and roots; the plant matures into a big tree and after years of stormy weather and sunny spring the tree dies.
In theory, it’s the same for a product. After a period of development, it is introduced or launched into the market (bird drops the seed on the ground); it gains more and more customers as it grows (shoots out leaves and roots); eventually the market stabilizes and the product becomes mature (little seed became a big tree); then after a period of time the product is overtaken by development and the introduction of superior competitors, it goes into decline and is eventually withdrawn (death of tree).
Product Life Cycle
To say that a product has a life cycle is to assert four things:
- That products have a limited life,
- product sales pass through distinct stages, each facing different challenges, opportunities, and problems to the seller,
- profit rise and fall at different stages of product life cycle, and
- products require different marketing, financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in each life cycle stage.
However, you must remember that a product life cycle even under normal conditions, to all practical intents and purposes often do not exist. Dhalla & Yuspeh in 1976 criticizes the product life cycles states that:
…clearly, the PLC (Product Life Cycle) is a dependent variable which is determined by market actions; it is not an independent variable to which companies should adapt their marketing programs. Marketing management itself can alter the shape and duration of a brand’s life cycle.
So, the life cycle may be useful as a description, but not as a PREDICTOR; and usually should be firmly under the control of the marketer. The important point is that in many markets, that product or brand life cycle is significantly longer than the planning cycle of the organizations involved.
For more about the product life cycle visit: http://www.samcarrara.com/marketing/product-life-cycle-overview/
The Product Journey,
Samuel Carrara
About to Break 200K in Alexa
As I write this post, this blog has an Alexa Rating of 205,159. Just a few months ago it was around 8,000,000 (Eight Million).
Good movement, but I’m not done yet. I’m doing a big push now to move to 150,000.
I’m asking for a little help.
Go to the post below and come to my site over the next few days:
http://www.samcarrara.com/marketing/more-traffic-download-the-alexa-toolbar/
Thank you for your help.
Also, this Friday I have a product being released that you won’t want to miss, it will have over 60% savings for only 24 hours. After that time period, the price goes up.
Keep watching here each day, next week I release the Alexa Secrets that has propelled my blog and others using this method.
Stay Tuned,
Sam Carrara
p.s. Download the Alexa Toolbar now- http://www.alexa.com/site/download
Check This Out- Penny DVD
Check out the site below from Robert Phillips:
http://www.cybercashology.com/practically-free-special-offer
I just got the free DVD he’s offering in the mail. I also bought the upsell because he has great information. I’ll be looking thru the material this week.
Load up on inexpensive information to jumpstart your business.
Educate Yourself,
Sam Carrara
Product Life Cycle- Overview
Every product has a life cycle. And every product class has a life cycle. The life cycle is generally broken down into four parts. A graphical representation of the Product Life Cycle is shown below:
The four stages are defined as: (From a business to consumer B2C point of view.)
- Introduction- Here the company tries to educate the consumer about how the product works, why its needed and work on distribution of the product.
- Growth- Now that consumers know more about the product, companies try to build brand loyalty and increase their market share.
- Maturity- Sales begins to slow and competitors appear to have the same or similar product. Companies are trying to defend market share.
- Decline- A product may become obsolete, need to be revamped or just continues to make sales. Some products do not face being obsolete.
The picture shows one way a product life cycle may evolve. Sometimes it may cycle back and forth between maturity and growth due to innovations of ideas. Where is Your product on this curve? Just because it is in the Introduction or Decline stage, doesn’t mean you should or shouldn’t be marketing the product.
In future posts I will talk about each stage in more detail.
Know the Life Cycle,
Sam Carrara
