Impact of Product Life Cycles

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Please see response below, and an illustrate advertising strategy often used in the growth and early maturity stage of the PLC.

RESPONSE:

1. Describe the impact of the product life cycle on how your firm markets its products/services? Give an example of how the advertising message or other promotions change as your product/service matures.

Marketing is impacted by which stage its products/services are in. Briefly, the stages in the Product Life Cycle (PLC) are:

· Introduction: This stage mainly concerns the development of a new product, from the time is was initially conceptualized to the point it is introduced on the market. The corporation having an innovative idea first will often have a period of monopoly until competitors start to copy and/or improve the product (unless a patent is involved as it is the case in industries such as pharmaceuticals). Generally, associated freight flows take place within developed countries and/or close to markets where to product is likely to be adopted (e.g. research and develop)

· Growth: if the new product is successful (many are not), sales will start to grow and new competitors will enter the market, slowly eroding the market share of the innovative firm. The product starts to be exported to other markets and substantial efforts are made to improve its distribution since competition mainly takes place more on the innovative capabilities of the product than on its price (e.g., first competitors)

· Maturity: At this stage, the product has been standardized, is widely available on the market and its distribution is well established. Competition increasingly takes place over cost and a growing share of the production takes place in low cost locations. Associated freight flows are consequently modified to include a greater transnational component (e.g., mass ...