Product Life Cycle
Introduction product –
Growth product –
Mature product –
Declining product –
Decision point product –
Introduction Stage
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Lots of advertising
Push and Pull Strategies For New Products
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Push – marketers focus on product placement and obtaining
o
Pull – create advertisements that create a ‘buzz’ for the product. Also marketers may
use samples, coupons and other promotion techniques
Growth Stage
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More people have been using them
Features that are only available in Apple iPads
Once “early adopters” find and use a new product,
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Word of mouth and viral marketing are popular
Maturity Stage
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Have been around for awhile
Apple introduces new kinds of iPods
Declining Stage
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Environmentalists want to help save the planet
High gas prices
People can buy hybrids instead
, that product is in the decline stage
Decision Point
o VHS replaced by both DVDs and Blu-ray
o Not as good quality as DVD and Blu-ray
Group Activity
Draw a Traditional Product Life Cycle, and match a product from a magazine ad with the appropriate
part of the product life cycle. Also include arrows describing if the sales volume and profits are high or
low or if they are going up or down.
Example: VHS Tapes, Decline Stage, Sales volume going down, Profits going down
Fad
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, then it becomes unpopular just as quickly
Examples include:
o Movies
o Books
o Songs
o Others:
Many were sold when it came out
After a while no one wanted one
What does the Fad graph look like?
Trends
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A trend is different than a fad in that it
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Example: Bell-bottomed jeans
o Many people were wearing them
o Happened in the 70’s
o Influenced by disco
Other examples:
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Niche Markets
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These products have a niche,
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A very short growth stage, that leads to a
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Examples:
o Graphic tablets: They are very popular among artists
o The number of artists out of all the people buying products isn’t a lot.
o What does a Niche graph look like?
Seasonal Products
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Products that are either not available on the market during certain seasons or periods of the
year or are available throughout the year but with
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Examples:
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What does a Seasonal graph look like?
Your Task
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Create a short PowerPoint presentation
Find two products that fall within each of the growth categories (introduction, growth, maturity,
declining); explaining why.
Does the product fall under other categories as well (ie: seasonal, niche, fad, trend)
Look for a picture on the Internet for each one and be ready to present your findings to the class