Marketing and product life cycle - Assignment Example

The paper incorrectly defines lifecycle as a process which ends when the product is withdrawn from the market. The new research is against this concept. A life cycle does not end with the product declining and withdrawn from market. However, there is a new extension stage that is being introduced by marketing gurus. The extension stage is missing from the product life cycle stage in this paper. The extension stage starts as soon as the marketers try to extend the product life cycle and incorporate new features in a product to make sure that its decking sales start to pick again.

Product Life Cycle (PLC) is a continuous process. It does not end like the human lifecycles. Brands and products do not die. They can be kept in the market for eternity if proper marketing techniques are used. There is a new field innovative marketing that is being used to revive the declining products and brands. These techniques improve the product’s position in the market and help the decline stage of a flagging brand. The paper did not discuss the extension stage and these strategies which are often used by marketing managers to cure the negative demand of the product.

The paper also fails to identify the various marketing strategies that can be used in each stage of the product life cycle. The paper also talks about the advertising in the introduction phase to generate the trial purchases. However, advertising and promotion are integral parts of any product’s success and they are needed in every stage of the product lifecycle. However, the nature and kind of advertising and promotions change in each stage of the product life cycle. For example, in the introduction stage, informative advertising is done.

In the growth stage, persuasive advertising is done. In maturity when there is a lot of competition in the product market, competitive advertising is done to hedge and leverage the position of the product against the competing products. Similarly, there are different kinds of promotional techniques that are used in the different stages of product life cycle. In introduction stage, there is product testing and free samples are given. In growth stage, brand endorsements are used. In maturity stage, usually special discounts and other offers such as “buy 2 get 1 free” are used.

A company that does not use different advertising and promotion campaigns in different lifecycle stages usually suffers and loses business. Good marketers develop correct strategies in each stage of product life cycle. However, the paper failed to realize these important marketing concepts. The paper also makes a fundamental error in product pricing techniques. It assumes just two types of pricing techniques even though there is more to pricing strategy than just price skimming and economy pricing.

Overall, the paper has tried to over product life cycle extensively, but it fails to recognize the different strategies that used in the different stages of product life cycle and the importance of these strategies on the longevity of the product and the brand in the market.