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.