Marketing in management - Essay Example

Running Head: MARKETING IN MANAGEMENT Lecturer: Presentation: A products life cycle might be long or short depending on various factors such as competing firms, inappropriate marketing strategies and declining economic conditions that may severely affect the demand of a product. The global economic crisis is a phenomenon that led to a decline in demand of commodities thereby hurting several firms. Some such as GM had to close some of their intermediaries that had been established globally. The demand for cars declined as consumers could not afford American vehicles sold by the company.

They opted for the cheaper Chinese cars regardless of the difference in quality. Apart from the shift demand shift to cars from a different company, some consumers preferred to use their money for necessities (More, 2009). In the mobile communication industry, several companies have been faced with declining demand for services as consumers buy services from other companies. KenCell Communications Limited is one of the UK companies that whose progress was largely influenced by shifts in demand leading to acquisition of some of its foreign subsidiaries such as the acquisition of KenCell (Kenya) by Celtel International, which was later acquired by Zain Group that is a Kuwait based multinational telecommunications company.

The strategy that the company applied could not match that of competing companies such as Vodafone and Safaricom that offered highly differentiated services that helped them to acquire a large market share that was maintained even during the global economic crisis. Zain group was unable to develop brand equity that would increase demand for its services and with dwindling sales is scheduled to be acquired by Bharti Airtel (Curwen, 2005). IBM PC that dominated the computer market in 1987 lost its market share when competitors introduced superior products in the market.

Compac introduced the PC XT compatibles which were not available for IBM. Even though IBM later introduced advanced products later, the impact of Compac and Dell’s competition affected the company’s original brand equity. More companies have entered the market with innovative technologies selling products at lower prices thereby decreasing the demand for IBM products (Gottschalk & Saether, 2006). To save the current brand from declining demand, it is important to ensure that there are products for all the available market segments.

If GM could have been producing a range of cars i. e. from luxurious to cheap cars, consumer demand could not have shifted to cheap Chinese cars (More, 2009). Apart from targeting all market segments, the product pricing needs to be set according to market prices while comparing them to those of other company’s products to avoid exposing a weakness that may give a chance to competitors to influence market demands. For example Kencell’s pricing strategy could not help the company to attract consumers mainly because the services were sold at prices far much above those of competitors.

Product prices need to be varied according to the market situation. Inventiveness is important to ensure that the company utilizes the available opportunities before competitors. IBM was innovative earlier but failed to identify the opportunity that would be utilized through inventiveness. Compac and Dell took advantage of the available opportunities and accomplished a large market share through innovativeness (Lloyd and Heller, 1994). Such inventive strategies need to be employed in the product line to ensure that new products are offered to consumers to keep them encouraged to come back for more.

References Curwen, P. (2005). “The telecommunications sector shows signs of revival”, info, Vol. 7, 1: 41 - 52 Gottschalk, P. & Saether, H. (2006), “Maturity model of IT outsourcing relationship”, Industrial Management & Data System, vol. 106, 2: 200–212 Lloyd, B. and Heller, R. (1994). “IBM: Decline or Resurrection?: The Management Decision Interview”, Management Decision, Vol. 32,8: 5 - 10 More, R. (2009). “How General Motors Lost its Focus – and its Way” Ivey Business Journal, Vol.

3, 1: 15- 22