Blog 7: The Different Shapes of the Product Life Cycle

Hi everybody!

I hope you enjoyed my last post. Today, I am going to talk more about the the Product Life Cycle. The difference between today's post and yesterday's post is that today I am going to focus on the shape of the sale curves of each Product Life Cycle.

Yesterday, I showed you all a picture of a generic product life cycle sales curve. This does not mean that all products have the same shape of their curve. There are actually four different life cycle curves for the four different types of products: high-learning, low-learning, fashion, and fad products. Each curve tends to have it's own marketing strategy.

A high-learning product is one that requires significant customer education and the introduction stage is extended. You could say that the GPS was a high-learning product. This is because when the GPS first came out, most people were used to either relying on maps or the directions of others. When the GPS first came out, many people were not sure how to exactly use it. I remember when my family first bought a GPS. It took my family awhile to get used to the new technology but once we did get used it we started rely on it more and more until it became a staple in traveling to new places. Now, most people always have GPS's with them because they come standard in almost every smartphone and new car.

Low-learning products are different because their sales begin very quickly due to the simplicity of the product. This allows consumers to understand the product almost right away. Often times, competitors can easily copy the low-learning products. This forces companies to broaden their distribution channels quickly. A low-learning product that has been very successful is Red Bull Energy Drink. Due to their marketing strategy, consumers from all over the world were able to learn about what the drink offers and how it can help them live their everyday life.

The next type of product that we are going to talk about is a fashion product. These products change with the style of the times and the life cycles frequently appear in apparel. They usually go from the introduction stage right to the decline stage and then eventually reappear. This does not mean that each fashion product has the same life cycle. Some cycles can last formally years while some might only last for a few weeks. When thinking about fashion product in men's apparel I thought about how most guys used to wear shorts that were really short. I remember when I was younger, I used to think that my dad and my uncles were hanging out or playing sports in their boxers. Back then, these shorts were a huge hit and almost every guy wore them. Today, that fashion product is starting to become big again even though many guys still wear shorts that reach their knees. This revival is partially thanks to a company called Chubbies. Chubbies has taken these shorts and made them their own. By doing this they create brand loyalty and with this loyalty they are beginning to make the shorter shorts popular again.

The last product that we are going to talk about is called the fad product. These fad products experience rapid sales during the introduction phase and then they decline at almost the same speed. These products tend to be novelties with a short life cycle. A product that had a very short life cycle is the bracket company Silly Bandz. These bracelets were designed mainly for kids and each one had a different design on it. Some were animals, holiday symbols or just simple shapes. These bracelets were huge for a few weeks but then all of a sudden children stopped buying them. Silly Bandz were really big somewhere around me freshman or sophomore year of high school. I remember going shopping with my younger sister and finding these bracelets at almost every store we went to. Everyone tried to have the most bracelets while also having a cooler ones then your friends. I even remember going to a Mets game and seeing Silly Bandz that have the Mets logo as the design being sold.

I hope you guys enjoyed today's post!

See You Soon!
Chris

Works Cited

Chubbies. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. 

GPS. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. 

Kerin, Roger A., Steven W. Hartley, and William Rudelius. Marketing. 11th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2013. Print. 

Product Life Cycles. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. 

Red Bull. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. 

Silly Bandz. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

Blog 6: Products Have A Life Cycle Too

Hey everybody!

Did you know that products follow a life cycle just like humans do? Products go through four stages in what is called the Product Life Cycle. These four stages are introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

The Introduction Stage is when a product gets introduced into its target market. During this period, the products sales are low but growing slowly. Product does now have much profit because the company usually invests a lot of money in product development. Companies want to raise consumer awareness for their product so they often will spend a lot of money on advertising. Sometimes consumers are also given the ability to try out a product before buying it. My textbook talks about how Gillette spent millions of dollars to develop the Fusion razor and then they went on to spend about $200 million in advertising. Within a few month over 60% of male shavers were aware of the new razor and about 26% of them tried out the product.

A lot of the money spent in the introduction stage is made to simulate two types of demands which are primary and secondary. Primary demand is when a consumer wants to buy a certain product class instead of a specific brand while secondary demand is the preference for a specific brand.

During the Growth Stage, the product has a rapid increase in sales and other competitors become present. Profit usually peaks during this stage because of the increase in competitors and the fact that the products are priced in a competitive manner. Advertising usually focuses on the products benefits and then compares itself to the competitors. This means that they are targeting consumers that already have purchased the product in the past as well as reaching out to new people. Companies wants to show how they are different and also show some new or improved features that they have added since the original design went on sale. You could say that tablets are a good example of being in the growth stage because originally most consumers only knew about the iPad but as time went on new competitors like Samsung or Microsoft have come out with their own tablets. Each company tries to show how their product is different from everyone else's while also developing new features for their own tablet.

You tend to see competitors leave the market and a decline the industries sales during the Maturity Stage. The consumers that buy these products tend to be brand loyal and repeat customers. There are fewer new consumers that enter the market so the sales begin to slightly decrease. Companies profit will also decline because of the competitive prices among competitors and it cost more money to reach new consumers. When marketing during the maturity stage, companies try to hold on to their market share through promotion of product differentiation and finding new buyers. My textbook uses soft drinks as an example of being in the maturity stage. This is because most of the consumers of soft drinks are brand loyal and will keep going back to the same product over time. As time has gone on, some smaller soft drink companies have gone out of business while companies like Pepsi and Coke have been strong competitors for years.

During the Decline Stage you will see the sales drop. Products often enter this stage because the environment around it has change and not because the company did anything wrong. The two strategies for handling product decline are deletion and harvesting. Deletion is when a company removes the product from the company's product line. This is considered a drastic approach because consumers still use the product even though it is the decline stage. Harvesting is when a company keeps the product and just reduces marketing costs. Sales people will continue to sell the product but they will not spend a lot of time or money marketing or selling the product. I thought that 35 mm film fits this stage very well because some photographers still use film to take pictures even though we are in a digital world. Camera companies still sell film even though they mainly focus products for digital cameras.

I hope you all enjoyed this weeks blog!

See you soon!
Chris

Works Cited

Film. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. 

Gillette Fusion. Helloadoorable, 22 Mar. 2006. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. 

Kerin, Roger A., Steven W. Hartley, and William Rudelius. Marketing. 11th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2013. Print. 

Product Life Cycle. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. 

Soft Drinks. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. 

Tablets. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.

Blog 5: The Different Types of Products

Hey Everybody!

Did you know that there are two categories of products in Marketing? Neither did I. Usually I just something and it registers as a product or a service. Today I am going to go into more details about these categories so that you have an idea about what you are buying next time you go shopping. The two categories of products are called CONSUMER and BUSINESS products. My textbook tells us that consumer products are products purchased by the consumer while business products are products that organizations buy to assist in providing other products for resale. Business products are sometimes known as business-to-business or B2B products and industrial products. You need to keep in mind that that products can be both a consumer and a business product. For example, an HP printer could be bought by a consumer for use in his or her house while a company could buy the same printer for office use. Both groups would most likely buy these products in different places because a consumer would buy it through a store while a sale's representative for HP would most likely contact the company to place an order.

Consumer products are broken up into four sub-categories; the CONVENIENCE PRODUCT, SHOPPING PRODUCT, SPECIALTY PRODUCT, and the UNSOUGHT PRODUCT. These products tend to be different because the consumer will react differently while purchasing each product.

The CONVENIENCE product are different products that a consumer frequently purchases buys with convenience and a very small amount of shopping effort. Chips is an example of a type of products that fits into this category. These products tend to be inexpensive and can be located in many places. The consumer will usually be aware of favorite brands but will substitute for a different brand if necessary. Companies will tend to stress that their products are inexpensive and available in many locations.

The SHOPPING products are items that the consumer compares several alternatives based on price, quality and style. These products tend to be on the more expensive side of things but still available on a large scale. Consumers will usually show brand loyalty but they will substitute for another brand if they need to. These products are not bought very often and the consumer will tend to compare different products. Companies will usually stress how their product is different from the competitors product. A good example of a shopping product are sunglasses. Last time I went to a surf shop to buy sunglasses I had a certain brand and style in mind, which were Oakley Frogskins, but while I was there I tried on different models of Oakleys and different companies like SPY and Dragon to make sure that I was getting what I wanted but in the end I  did buy a pair of Oakley Frogskins.

SPECIALTY product are products that the consumer makes a special effort to search out and buy. These products tend to be very expensive and hard to find. Consumers are very brand loyal and will not accept substitutes. The consumer will purchase these products very infrequently and they spend a lot of time on searching and making a decision. The company will stress the uniqueness of their brand. For me, a specialty product that I buy is a snowboard. I am very particular when it comes to what I am looking for in my board. I will usually buy one every four to five years and I do a lot of research before making my decision. I will almost always read Snowboard Magazines Buyer Guide to make sure that I am getting exactly what I want. I grew up riding a K2 Snowboard and as I grow older my loyalty to K2 grows because I have never bought a board from them that I have not liked.

UNSOUGHT products are the products that consumers usually do not know about or does not initially want. A good example of an unsought product is a fire extinguisher because a consumer usually will know about them but they never think that they will need to use on in their house. The price for these products tends to vary and you can not buy them everywhere. For products like these consumers will accept substitute brands and they do not purchase them very often. Awareness is crucial when it comes to the promotion of unsought products.

Business products are broken up into two categories: COMPONENTS or SUPPORT PRODUCTS. They are usually a result of what is called derived demand, which is when the sales of business products are derived from the sale of consumer products.

Components are items that become a final project like the lumber used to build a deck. Components are not only raw goods but they can also be parts used to build a product like a door hinge.

Support Products are items used to assist in producing goods and services. Support Products are broken up into installations, accessory equipment, supplies and industrial services. An example of an installation is fixed equipment while accessor equipment is usually tools or office equipment. Supplies are push pins or staples while industrial services can be an elevator maintenance or a lawyer's service.

Thanks for reading todays post! 

See you soon!
Chris

References:

Chips. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. 

Consumer Product Chart. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. 

Fire Extinguisher. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. 

Kerin, Roger A., Steven W. Hartley, and William Rudelius. Marketing. 11th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2013. Print. 

Lumber. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. 

Office Supplies. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. 

Snowboards. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. 

Sunglass Case. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.

Blog 4: How Companies Use Market Segmentation and Market Segments To Sell Their Products

Hi everybody! 

I hope you enjoyed my last post. Today we are going to talk about how companies use market segmentation and market segments to sell their products. Market segmentation is when you separate groups of potential buyers into smaller groups of people who share one or more characteristic or needs. These groups are called market segments and inside of these segments are people who have similar buying habits.

Companies like Nike use market segmentation to sell their different types of products. They have more than 9 different categories of sports that they cater to as well as men, women and children's gear. This means that they can segment their markets into the different sports as well as the different genders that they sell to. An example of this is how they have clothes and equipment for men and women's soccer and men and women's basketball. They even have clothes like polos and sweatshirts for people that just want to always feel comfortable while being active.

Sometimes, a company will have one product but multiple market segments for that product. Companies that publish magazines and book will usually target multiple markets. Many times these publications will have different covers, titles and even languages for the different markets. By using the same version but different covers, titles and languages companies are able to save money because they do not have to create different versions of magazines and books for the different markets. The magazine  Sports Illustrated is a good example of this because they often will have different covers for their magazines that are directed towards a certain part of the United States. When College Football had their first playoff series this past season, Sports Illustrated created a cover for each of the four teams competing in the playoff but it contained all most all of the same content. They then would send the magazine with the specific cover to whichever region that specific team was in.

Companies will sometimes products multiple products for multiple market segments. This idea tends to be more expensive because the company has to spend more money on developing, producing and advertising all of the multiple products. While you are spending more money to create the product, you can make more money if solve the customers needs. The shoe company, Vans, has multiple products that they sell to different markets. They have snowboard boots, flip-flops, boat shoes, classic skate boarding shoe, shoes for men, women and children. Over the past years, they have started to sell clothing as well. This has allowed Vans to target many different markets and still make money.

The last strategy that I am going to cover is called segments of one, or mass customization. Mass customization is when companies tailor goods to the tastes of individual customers on a high-volume scale. The sunglass company that I mentioned in my last post, Knockarounds, allows their customers to create their own custom pair of sunglasses through their website. First you decide if you want their Premium style or the Fort Knock style. Personally, I prefer the Premium style but it all depends on the person. Then you go on to pick what color you want the left arm, next you pick the right arm's color, then the color for the front of the glasses and finally the lens color and if you want it to be polarized or not. This allows you to have many different options to chose from. You can even let the computer randomize your design.


Knockaround CUSTOM from Ace Moyer on Vimeo.


Thank you for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it!

See you soon!
Chris


References:

"Custom Premium Sunglasses." Knockaround Sunglasses RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. 
Kerin, Roger A., Steven W. Hartley, and William Rudelius. Marketing. 11th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2013. Print. 

Knockaround CUSTOM. 2012. Vimeo. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. 

Nike Basketball Shoes. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. 

Nike Magista Cleat. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. 

Sports Illustrated College Football Playoff Covers. Digital image. N.p., 22 Dec. 2014. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. 

Vans. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. 

"What Is Market Segment? Definition and Meaning." BusinessDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.