Promotion and the Product Life Cycle
Introduction
Most of the customers are searching for getting quality products at less price. For understanding the needs of the customers, the companies must conduct proper research and analysis. All products or services go through a life cycle of NPI (new product introduction), growth, maturity and decline. These various stages affect the marketing strategy and promotional efforts implemented by the company. As per the report of Business Insider (2016), Apple called as the one of best innovative and profitable company in the world. The company is giving more importance to customers' needs and interest. In this paper, we are analyzing the factors that can affect the launch of a product or service. We are also analyzing the different types of media methods for the promoting new products and services.
Body
The idea of product lifecycle or PLC introduced by[1]Theodore Levitt in the year of 1965. It simply explains the stages included in the life of a product. For every person, we know that he or she must go through different stages in the life, like that in PLC, it explains the different stages of a product, which starting g form introduction to abandonment
Product Life Cycle Analysis
Introduction - Growth--maturity and saturation---Decline-Abandonment
Introduction
After the process of testing the product will be introduced in the market and the company must incur a huge cost in the introduction stage. In this, the company must incur the cost, because the sales of the product will be very low, and profit also is low (Ross et al 2016, p.32). The customers are not aware of the new product and they are not ready for the buying the product
Growth
It can be called as profit stage for the company, in which the customers buy the product and they spend their money for purchasing products in bulk, so the sales and profit will show a positive trend.
Source: forbes.com
Maturity and Saturation
Maturity and saturation can be called as two stages in PLC, in which in the maturity stage, the profit reach the maximum level and it will show a downward trend and the sales also show a downward trend
In the saturation stage,[2] sales will show negative value and the profit also show a downward trend, during these stages the companies will introduce various modification strategies
Decline and abandonment
Decline stage there will no sales and no profit and the cost of the company increases and the take the decision to remove the product from the market.
Metrics used to measure the success or failure of marketing activities
We can use sales metrics for understanding the success or failure of the marketing activities. If our marketing activities are good, it directly affects our sales, with the help of sales metrics we can able to track the information such as;
- New sales
- Total sales
- New customers list
- Change in market share
If the company sales are high we can understand that the marketing activities implemented by the company were effective.
Different types of media methods for the products
To retain the customers and to capture the market for a long time, the company must use effective promotional tools and strategies. For communicating the information about the product, the company can use;
- Business Magazine
- Facebook
Business magazines are highly helpful for promoting products and services offered by the company (Rowley et al 2014, p.269). Most of the international companies considered business magazines as an effective media for promoting their products and services. The company can also use social media sites for marketing the products and services.
Source: https://errocks.com/facebook-marketing
Facebook marketing always helps the company for improving the brand image and it also helps for connecting the customers in different parts of the world (Cai et al 2017, 779). Product and Promotion Tools
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing also called as the door to door marketing, in which the company uses direct media for capturing the target customers in a productive way. It can be called as a non-retailing store approach or armchair shopping (Reis et al 2015, p.47). The company can use direct marketing strategies for getting the immediate feedback about the product and services and it also helps to collect the information about customers in an effective way
Positioning
The company is giving more importance to quality and they are positioning the product on basis of quality and innovativeness.
Conclusion
While analyzing all these aspects we can understand that the company must use productivity tools for marketing new products and services in a productive way.
References
Holzbaur, E., Ross, J., & Rothrock, T. (2016). Epro Product Life Cycle: Guidance For A Successful Management Phase. Value in Health, 19(3), A109.
Wright, L. T., Gaber, H., Robin, R., & Cai, H. (2017, May). Content Strategies for Facebook Marketing: A Case Study of a Leading Fast-Food Brand Page. In Academy of Marketing Science Annual Conference (pp. 779-791). Springer, Cham.
Holliman, G., & Rowley, J. (2014). Business to business digital content marketing: marketers' perceptions of best practice. Journal of research in interactive marketing, 8(4), 269-293.
Reis, R., Oates, C., McGuinness, M., & Elliott, D. (2015). Developing relationships through direct marketing in a business-to-business context: the training sector in Portugal. InternationalJournal of Engineering and Industrial Management, (2), 47-59.
4. Price and Channel Strategy
Price and Place
The price and place/distribution strategies are considered by the organizations in the context of getting profits and growth of the business in the competitive marketplace. The price and place/distribution are interrelated to each other that help to achieve goals and objectives of the company (Cachon & Feldman, 2010). In this scenario, some elements of the price and place/distribution can be discussed as below:
Distribution Strategies:
Distribution strategies are the plan of an organization created by management in order to transfer products to the intermediaries, retailers and finally to the consumers after manufacturing in the company. Distribution strategies are adopted by the management of the organization in order to guide its entry into the target market successfully (Cachon & Feldman, 2010). The customers are targeted in the distribution strategies to enhance the market expansion in specific geographical areas and establishing the products with extensive presence in which supply chain plays the most important role to make it possible. The availability of the products and addressing the demand of the customers in the intended market can be possible only with the help of distribution strategies.
In distribution strategies, various tools and technologies are included from the warehouse, intermediaries, retailers and the end of the customers. These tools and technologies can be considered as information technologies, transportation systems, and storing of the products. These tools and technologies are very helpful to make the distribution strategies successful when the needs and interests of the customers are fulfilled (Cachon & Feldman, 2010). The information technologies are used to communicate and track the consignment of the products when transported through trucks or any other methods. The exclusive stores of the company are also important in the distribution strategies to provide products in the case of huge demands.
Positioning within Channels:
The positioning within channels play the most important role in product distribution because it affects the sales when target the customers. There are different channels in the distribution of the products, such as agents, distributors, retailers, and direct marketing, as well as a sales force to meet the expectations of both the customers and the company (den Boer, 2015). The positioning within channels is viewed as making a good relationship with the members of channels in the form of a partnership. The positioning within channels also makes strategic alliance with agents, distributors, retailers, or direct marketing, as well as a sales force that affects the profits and competitiveness of the company in the market.
At this stage, positioning within the channels influence the customer satisfaction and increase a chance of relationship marketing with the channels. Therefore, positioning within the channels are established to create trust and mutual benefits in the distribution of the products from manufacturing operations to the end users. Every member of the channels is important that can change throughout a product's life cycle (den Boer, 2015). Therefore, positioning within channels is the working relationship that usually builds mutual self-interest with the members and develops coordinated efforts to satisfy the requirements of the customers and the company.
Dynamic
The dynamic/static pricing strategies are generally adopted by the organizations based on the nature of the demand of the consumers in the market to make expected or intended benefits. The dynamic pricing strategies are adopted by the management of the organizations when the market conditions affect the sales of the products. A dynamic pricing strategy is considered by the organizations in the case of earning higher revenues and taking advantage of consumer heterogeneity through market segmentation (Chen et al., 2015). Therefore, the dynamic pricing strategy is implemented by the management of an organization because of different types of consumers. The price of most of the FMCG products is generally adjusted by the management in order to attract customers and increase sales, and profits, as well as take competitive advantage.
Static Pricing Strategies
On the other side, static pricing strategy of the company is considered for an extended amount of time in order to generate the highest possible revenue in the market. This is adopted after predicting future market trends. However, it is very challenging for the company to maintain the competitive marketplace (Chen et al., 2015). This strategy limits the amount of product selling in the market because of a different and unexpected market or segment of customers. Although there are few examples that keep the price fixed, such as movie theaters charge, restaurant menu prices, etc.
References
Cachon, G.P. & Feldman, P. (2010). Dynamic versus Static Pricing in the Presence of Strategic Consumers. Retrived from:https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5ea2/398082937f9f2f27e0841c68e06062d6e480.pdf
Chen, X., Deelstra, G., Dhaene, J., Linders, D. & Vanmaele, M. (2015). On an optimization problem related to static super-replicating strategies. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 278, 213-230.
den Boer, A.V. (2015). Dynamic pricing and learning: Historical origins, current research, and new directions. Surveys in Operations Research and Management Science, 20(1), 1-18.