Warfare about Product Life Cycle - Essay Example

? Warfare about Product Life Cycle (PLC) Introduction Marketing is one of the core functions of business organization. The term marketing can be simply defined as the activities or processes undertake by the business organizations for the purpose of promoting as well as selling the products and services to customers and generating revenues. In existing period of time, this definition of marketing has been changed quite significantly. In existing time, marketing can be defined as the identification and accomplishment of needs and requirements pursued by the customers so that value of money paid by the customer can be enhanced up to a significant level. In order to accomplish different marketing functions in the most effective manner, it is quite necessary for the management to undertake different marketing strategies at different time periods (Cole 2003). Different marketing strategies undertaken by business organizations are quite crucial for the organization as they are directed to achieve a specific and long term business objectives. In line to this, it is quite essential for the organization to align its different marketing strategies as per the demands and requirements of external business environment. For the purpose of formulating some crucial strategies and tactics, Product Life Cycle concept (PLC) is one of the most preferred concepts by business organizations. The concept elaborates different crucial stages in the life of a product presented by a business organization and explains different strategic measures, which should be taken by business organization at different stages of the life cycle of the product (Henry 2008). In direction to this the paper aims to reflect different strategies and crucial tactics undertaken by a business organization for the purpose of attaining desired success at different stages of the lifecycle of a product. In addition to this the paper also explains the concept of warfare in the context of marketing activities and strategies undertaken by the business organization. In direction to this the prime objective of this paper is explains different warfare and strategies, which are required to be taken into account from the side of the organization for the purpose of achieving some crucial long term success and sustainability within existing highly dynamic and competitive business environment. Meaning and Concept of marketing Warfare The term ‘Warfare’ is often used within the marketing, which can also be reflected in the different crucial strategies of marketing. The literary meaning of Warfare is related with the strategies and tactics used by armed forces at the time of war for the purpose of getting victory over its enemies. The term warfare represents some of the crucial and aggressive strategies implied for the purpose of countering some crucial competition provided by the competitors and enemies at the time of war. In direction to this, the disposition of warfare can also be aligned with the marketing activities undertaken by the business organization (Roney 2004). The implication of different crucial Wartime strategies and tactics in the marketing for the purpose of countering some crucial and intensive competition provided by competitors is known as marketing warfare. Marketing Warfare includes different strategies and tactics implied by the origination for the purpose of establishing compatibility within business and warfare. Moreover, it also opens a window for the effective application of different principles of military strategy in the business situations, so that an effective solution of intensive competition prevailing within the market place. As in contemporary scenario, the nature and disposition of business environment has been changed quite significantly. Due to heavy competition, market place have become a battle field in which, different competitors are fighting for saving their existence in this tough business environment (Orcullo 2008). In context to this, for the purpose of winning this battle, like war, business organizations are required to undertake some crucial strategic moves against other competing firms in the market. Moreover, another crucial objective of marketing warfare is to capture the market share of the competitors, which are battling with the organization for maintaining their existence. There are different crucial strategies and policies related with marketing warfare adopted by business organizations. These different marketing warfare strategies define and articulate the actions and moves undertaken by or business organizations against their competitors. Some of the crucial and frequently used strategies and tactics under the category of marketing warfare can be presented as below: Offensive marketing warfare strategies Offensive types of marketing warfare strategies elaborate some aggressive marketing strategies in order to challenge the existing market leaders. In this strategy the business organization should focus on the development of the competitive advantage within the market place for displacing the existing market leader (Drejer 2002). Defensive marketing warfare strategies Defensive marketing warfare strategies prompt the business organizations to secure themselves from the action of enemies rather than attacking on them. Deterrence Strategies In this type of marketing warfare strategy, the company makes continuous attacks over the psychology of its competitors through its marketing and advertising campaigns. In this measure, instead of attacking directly, the company tries to convince its competitor regarding its own strengths and capability, which affects the moral and psychology of the competitors. This leads the organization to remove its competitors from the marketplace (Drejer 2002). Pre-emptive strike Pre-emptive strike strategy prompts the company to investigate the future strategies and moves of its competitors and formulate a proactive counter strategy for it. In this strategy, the prime focus of the company is on being first to undertake any marketing campaign so that it can be able to attain pioneer advantage of the market (Stark 2007). Alliance Strategies Another crucial warfare strategy is alliance strategy. In this strategy, business organizations seek for their strategic partners so that they can be able accomplish their different business operations quite effectively and be ahead of their competitors (Roney 2004). Strategic withdrawal Strategic withdrawal is also one of the variants of defensive marketing warfare strategic move of the business organization. In this measure, the company temporarily back outs from the market and regroup it’s all the strengths so that it can attack on the competitor quit prominently (Ksvuori and Immonen 2011). These are some of the crucial and effective marketing warfare, which are undertaken by the company for the purpose of directing the company to counter intensive competition prevailing within the market. Business organizations frequently undertake such marketing warfare for the purpose of sustaining their presence within the marketplace. Product life cycle (PLC) Along with Marketing Warfare, Product Life cycle (PLC) is also an important aspect of marketing which prompts the organization to redesign its marketing strategies policies. PLC reflects different attributes and aspects of the products and their changes over a certain period of time. As per the concept of PLC, a product also have life span and cycles like living beings, which depends over the conditions of the business market and environment in which, the product exits. The concept of PLC shows that in a market place, a product is required to pass through different crucial stages, which cumulatively reflects the life of the product within the market place (Surhone, Tennoe and Henssonow 2010). In the context of a marketer, it is quite crucial to have proper and effective knowledge and understanding of different stages and their related characteristics. In relation to this product life cycle management (PLC management) has been started to cater some crucial attention of marketers. The PLC management can be defined as the successive planning of some crucial and broad range of strategies for the purpose of making the strategies effective in different stages of the life of the product within a specific market place. As in different stages of PLC, the company needs to face different environmental conditions; it becomes natural for the marketer to use different strategic moves according to the situation. Proper knowledge of PLC helps the marketer to decide the most appropriate strategy as per the conditions (Roney 2004). The primary goal of the PLC management is to enable the marketer to reduce the time and risk involved in the implementation of any marketing strategy, Improving the quality of the product, identifying the opportunities and threats prevailing within the external market place and reduction in the evolution of prototyping cost at the end of the life cycle of the product (Alkhafaji 2003). The concept of PLC states, there are four crucial stages considered within the life cycle of the product, namely introduction phase, growth phase, maturity phase, and declining phase. A brief description of different stages of product life cycle can be presented under the next section of the paper. Stage of the product life cycle Product life cycle concept states that there are four crucial stages of product’s life, which reflects different environmental conditions available for the company in order to market and advertise its products. These four crucial cycles of a product’s life can be plotted in the presented in the below diagram Figure: Product Life Cycle (Source: Orcullo 2008) As per the diagram, these four stages of the life cycle of a product can be discussed as below: Introduction phase The first stage of the product life cycle is called as the introductory phase. It is the phase in which, the product is introduced within the market place. In this stage, the product and organization has no prior experience of the market. In terms of growth and revenue, the company does not expect anything from the market. Low growth rate is the primary characteristic of this stage as the product is newly launched in the market and acceptance of the product by people is quite low. The prime marketing objective of the business organizations is to aware customers regarding its presence within the market place. The business organization is required to make heavy investments in its advertising and promotional campaign in this stage (Ries, and Trout 2005). As in starting, it takes time to avail consumer acceptance regarding the product; the organization generally has to bear losses rather than profits. The prime emphasis in the advertising campaigns is given to provide more information regarding the utility of the product for consumers so that its acceptance level in the market can be achieved. It is the most crucial stage for the business organization as in this stage the company has to face some intensive competition provided from the side of well established competitors. The successful accomplishment of the stage opens a window for further success of the organization (Surhone, Tennoe and Henssonow 2010). Growth Phases After being introduced within the market in the most effective manner, a product is required to pass through the growth phase. The PLC curve is also reflecting that growth phase is the phase in which, the sales revenues and profits of the organization shows a sudden and significant growth. In the stage, business organization enters into the existing prevailing competition within the market and starts to compete quite intensively. The increased level of consumer acceptance, presence of some ample amount opportunities, high rate of growth and revenues and large amount of profits are some of the crucial determinants of this stage. From the perspective of an organization, the growth phase can be considered as the most risky phase in the entire life cycle of the product. It is due to the reason that future orientation of the company depends heavily upon the strategies and policies taken in this period of time. The growth phase is considered as one of the most suitable phase in which, a company can undertake any innovation and develop a competitive advantages for securing long term success and sustainability within the marketplace. The prime objective of marketing in this stage is to make the people informed regarding newly launched products and service of the organization. All the activities undertaken within this phase are directed to prepare a strong base for the company for the future orientation of the organization (Stokes and Lomax 2008). Maturity Phase After enjoying some intensive growth at the growth phase, the product enters into the maturity phase. After the ending the of growth phase, the sales of company started to become stable as the product has already achieved adequate acceptance of the market place. In this stage the company establishes itself effectively within the market place and makes its place among the market leaders. Although the revenues and sales of the organization remains on the peek in this stage, yet still the growth rate becomes quite stable for the organization. Moreover, the company starts to face some intensive competition provided by new entrants within the marketplace, who compete with the company with their innovating and new models of the product. In this stage the company is required to undertake some crucial strategies and tactics for the purpose of enchasing its economies scale and competitive advantage developed over a period of time. The development of brand loyalty among its customers is also one of the major focuses of the all the strategic measures undertaken by the business organization. The prime objective of all the marketing communications and activities is to make the customers brand loyal and dedicated towards the company’s products. For this purpose, business organization can undertake various measures of sale promotions such as discount offers, free gifts, schemes, and so on, which are not feasible for other new firms entering into market quite prominently (Ungson, and Wong 2008). Declining phase This is the last stage of the product life cycle of a product, which represents the declining profits and sales of the product within the market. It is the phase in which the company has cultivated all the potential of the market. Due to changing demands of customers and intensive activities undertaken by its close competitor, it becomes quite hard for the organization to have its survival in the existing market. This leads the products towards declining phase. The failure of effective marketing and advertising activities undertaken by the organization, in the maturity phase becomes the prime reason behind the advent of this phase in the life of the product (Cant Strydom and Jooste 2009). In this stage, the prime objective of the marketing strategies implied by the organization is to make last and intensive efforts for the purpose of revitalize the performance of the company and avert its declining within the marketplace. In addition to this another crucial marketing objective of the organization in this phase is to windup its business from the market in the most strategic manner so that the organization is require to bear minimum amount of loss in the market (Graham 2008). In this way, it is quite crucial for the organization to follow these crucial stages of the product should be taken into account by the business organization while designing any strategy for the long term sustainability of the organization. Warfare about different stages of product life cycle As per the above discussion, four crucial stages of products life cycle of a product can be revealed. From the perspective of marketing functions of an organization, it is quite crucial to undertaken different strategic initiative and tactics as per the requirement of different stages. In this context, a brief discussion of warfare about different stages of product life cycle adopted by business organizations can be listed as below: Warfare used in the introduction phase: Introduction is the starting phase of the organization or a product in a specific market place. In order to get success, it is quite essential for business organizations to consider some of the crucial warfare and strategies within the market place. The first and foremost strategies used in the introduction phase are the market entry strategies. There are two prime strategies used by business organizations for the purpose of entering into a new market and introduce its products: (a) Market penetration strategy As per this marketing warfare, the company needs to penetrate the territory of its competitor quite deeply. For this purpose, the penetration warfare induces the management to keep its prices low at the time of introduction and put more emphasis over catering mass market for attaining significant mare share. In this strategy, the company uses low cost advertising channels so that overall operating cost can be minimized. This helps the organization to maintain the adequate amount of profits even after keeping its prices low (Orcullo 2008). (b) Market skimming strategy The second crucial strategy undertaken for the purpose of introducing the product into the market is market skimming strategy in which, the company keeps its prices and advertising level quite high. This strategy is aimed to focus on some core and niche markets, so that product can be positioned into the market. This market warfare helps the organization to skim all the potential of the market before other competitors reaches to the market (Cant Strydom and Jooste 2009). Along with such crucial market entry strategy, the company also undertakes some of the crucial offensive and aggressive warfare to overcome the entry barriers implied by existing market leaders. Among such warfare, direct marketing and communication with the customers is also one of the most crucial marketing warfare used by the company. In the case of highly uncertain, risky and new product launched into the market, it becomes quite necessary for the marketer to explore the worth of the product to the customers through having direct communication within them. As the price sensitivity of the customers in the introductory phase is relatively low due to lack of the recognizing the utility and value of the product, the company requires to undertake comprehensive and in-depth research of the market before the setting of price for newly launched products (Avlonitis, and Papastathopoulou 2006). In addition to this, as per offensive and aggressive marketing warfare, the company should be quite attentive towards using its distribution channels in the most effective manner. In this regard, some crucial strategies such as providing distribution rebates, higher retail margins, and covering inventory costs, for the purpose of keeping its distribution channel quite effective. Warfare used in the growth phase Different types of warfare used in the growth phase of the company are quite crucial as they decide the future orientation of the company into the market. In direction to this, the company should focus on pre-emptive marketing warfare, which states that the company should have formulate strategy for striking its competitors before being stroked by its competitors. In regard to this phase of PLC, the company requires to find the way through which it can develop an edge over its close competitors within the market place. In order to develop competitive advantage, two different strategies can be applied (Graham2008). (a) Product differentiation The first and foremost measure of developing competitive advantage within the market is to make the products and services offered by the company differentiated from that of other competing companies. This differentiation can be implied in terms of product features, prices, quality, service delivery, and after sales services. In context to this, the company is required to make some heavy investments in its research and development competencies. Competitive advantage earned by the company in the market, helps it to gain adequate amount of profits and market share that accelerate the growth of the product and company (Avlonitis, and Papastathopoulou 2006). (b) Cost leadership Another crucial measure used for developing competitive advantage is cost leadership strategy. As per this strategy, the company focuses over keeping its cost lower in comparison to its competitors so that prices can be kept low while maintaining adequate amount of profits. Low prices can be used by the company to make itself differentiated among its competitors and cater mass market (Clemente 2002). Warfare used in the maturity phase In the maturity phase, where the company has attained significant amount of market share and profits, it becomes quite crucial for it to have marketing campaign that can lead to generate brand loyalty among its customers. Moreover, market warfare used by the company in this stage is directed to counter some intensive amount of competition provided by the newly entered business organizations in the market place (Cant Strydom and Jooste 2009). In this context, the company requires to use deterrence marketing warfare related strategies. As per this strategy, through aggressive and effective marketing advertising, the mature company can make psychological pressure over its new but prominent competitors, and pursue them to leave the market place. The evidence of this strategy can be seen in the Cola-War between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in which, Coca-Cola has undertaken a number of different marketing campaigns for attacking directly over PepsiCo to make them out of the competition (Clemente 2002). There are a number of different advantages availed by the organization in the maturity phase, which can be proved quite helpful for the organization to address some intensive competition provided from the side of newly entered competitors. For instance, availability of adequate amount of resources, significant amount of market share, competitive advantage, economies of scale, and well established marketing and distribution channels, are some of the crucial advantages of the maturity phase enjoyed by the organization. The business organization can utilize such characteristics for the purpose of ensuring its sustainability within the existing market place (Ries, and Trout 2005). In direction to this, the business organization can provide some adequate amount of cash discounts, free gifts, offers, and other facilities for making customers brand loyal. These strategies cannot be undertaken by new competitors, as they cannot afford discount due to the lack of financial resources (Stokes and Lomax 2008). Along with this, for a business organization, it is quite crucial for undertaking alliance warfare within the business organization. Due to the mature status of the organization, there is some intensive opportunity available for it to undertake different strategic alliance with other business organizations in order to make their business operations more effective and intensive. The mature and prominent status of the company allows it to undertake different strategies such as product differentiation and intensification for the purpose of addressing different problems and issues related to the intensive competition prevailing within the marketplace (Ungson, and Wong 2008). Warfare used in the declining phase Along with the other phases of PLC, declining phase is also one of the crucial and essential phases in the life cycle of the product and organizations. Warfare used within this stage is quite aimed to avert the declining of its position within existing market place. The first and foremost warfare used within this phase, is the strategic withdrawal. Strategic withdrawal is the measure through which, the organization temporarily withdraws its products and services from the markets. This will allow the company to have some intensive amount of time for the purpose of regaining its strengths and reestablish itself within this market place (Stokes and Lomax 2008). In addition to this, the strategic withdrawal also enables the company to have restart right from the beginning and make itself align with the new demands and requirements of the customers. From the perspective of the organization having a new start is quite difficult task in which, it has to change its entire operational and structural framework quite intensively. In order to implement such changes, the organization needs to adopt some crucial strategic initiatives. In relation to this, another crucial and effective strategy which can be taken into account by the organization is the merger. In this strategy, the company prefers to merge with other company. This strategy allows the organization to attain maximum amount of returns before its declining (Ries, and Trout 2005). These are some of the crucial and strategic warfare, which can allow the organization to have adequate and desired success in different market place during different stages of PLC. These different types of marketing warfare are quite differentiated from each other and are directed to achieve different types of objectives. In the context, there are some effective and efficient marketing strategies undertaken by the business organizations are quite helpful for them to face and avert different types of strategic issues faced by the organization at different stages of PLC. Conclusion Product Life Cycle (PLC) is one of the major concepts in the field of marketing, which will be quite helpful for the business organization in formulating some of the crucial strategic objective. In direction to this, the paper has shaded some of the crucial lights over marketing warfare regarding different stages of product development. On the basis of the in-depth review of different findings, it can be concluded that product life cycle of a product reveals different stage right from its introduction to its decline. In different stages there are different conditions and situations can be faced by the business organization. For the purpose of being successful within the existing market place, it becomes quire essential for the management of the organization to undertake some of the crucial strategic steps in the context of addressing different type of external environmental problems and issues. In regard to this, in existing highly competitive business environment, there is a need of having some crucial and effective strategies and tactics related to different stages of PLC for the purpose of configuring its strategies as per the demands of related stage of product life cycle. In relation to direction to this, there is different warfare marketing strategies associated with the different stages of product life cycle. In relation to this, such different warfare allows the organization to have long term success and sustainability within existing market place. For a business organization it is quite essential to understand and elaborate such crucial strategic measures so that desired success can be attained in the most effective manner. Right selection of strategies at the right time of time is the key of success for the organization and above discussed warfare about PLC allows the organizations to do so effectively and efficiently. References Alkhafaji, A.F. 2003. Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control in a Dynamic Environment. 21th Ed. Routledge. Avlonitis, G, and Papastathopoulou, P. 2006. Product and Services Management. Pine Forge Press. Cant, M.C., Strydom, J.W. and Jooste, C.J. 2009. Marketing Management. Juta and Company Ltd. Clemente, M.N. 2002. The Marketing Glossary: Key Terms, Concepts and Applications. Clementebooks. Cole, C.A. 2003. 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