Lifebuoy

Product life cycle & Marketing

Strategies

By:
Akash Trivedi Ankit Jain
Ankit Chandak Paul Dinakar
Vamsi Krishna Ankur Jain
 Introduction

 One of the oldest brand of HUL & positioned as health &

hygiene soap.
 Introduced in 1895 as a disinfectant soap especially when
the country was severely affected by diseases like typhoid
plague & yellow fever
 Lifebuoy was the only soap brand to cross 100,000 tonnes
of sales in a single year
 The Brick Red Soap with its beautiful jingle have carried
the message of health across the length and breadth of the
country making it the largest selling soap brand in the
world
 Marketing mix

Product Price
• Launched as carbolic red • Targeted lower & middle
disinfectant soap income group mainly the
• Initially meant only for rural consumers
health & hygiene • Priced at comparatively low
• Moved on to freshness , price to attract more
beauty care, nature care & customers
deodorant • Moved on to high prices
• Rejuvenated product following the process of
cycle by increasing line trading-up
/length
Place Promotion
• With strong distribution • Initially positioned as a
channel mainly targeted male brand then moved on
rural market. to family brand
• Used health programs for
promotion to make people
aware about health &
hygiene
 Why a product life cycle?
A company’s positioning and differentiation strategy must change
as the product, market, and competitors change over the time.
When we say that a product has a life cycle we assert four things:
i. Products have a limited life.
ii. Products sales pass through different stages, each posing
different challenges, opportunities and problems to the seller.
iii.Profits rise and fall at different stages of the product life cycle.
iv.Products require different marketing, financial, manufacturing,
purchasing, and human resource strategies in each life – cycle
stages.
 Product Life Cycle
Product life cycle is the stages over which a product
develops & affects the sales and profits over time.

The five stages of each product lifecycle are:

Product development
Introduction
Growth,
Maturity
Decline.
Different patterns of PLC
 Product Life Cycle

Monopoly Monopolistic Oligopoly Pure Competition

Sales and Profits Over the Product’s Lifetime

Introduction Stage of the PLC
Summary of Characteristics, Objectives, & Strategies
Sales
Sales Low
Low

Costs
Costs High
High cost
cost per
per customer
customer

Profits
Profits Negative
Negative

Marketing
Marketing Objectives
Objectives Create
Create product
product awareness
awareness and
and trial
trial

Product
Product Offer
Offer aa basic
basic product
product

Distribution
Distribution Build
Build selective
selective distribution
distribution

Promotion
Promotion Heavy
Heavy to
to entice
entice product
product trial
trial
Growth Stage of the PLC
Summary of Characteristics, Objectives, & Strategies
Sales
Sales Rapidly
Rapidly rising
rising

Costs
Costs Average
Average cost
cost per
per customer
customer

Profits
Profits Rising
Rising

Marketing
Marketing Objectives
Objectives Maximize
Maximize market
market share
share

Product
Product Offer
Offer extension,
extension, service,
service, warranty
warranty

Price
Price Penetration
Penetration strategy
strategy

Distribution
Distribution Build
Build intensive
intensive distribution
distribution

Promotion
Promotion Reduce
Reduce to
to take
take advantage
advantage of
of demand
demand
 Maturity Stage of the PLC
Summary of Characteristics, Objectives, & Strategies
Sales
Sales Peak
Peak

Costs
Costs Low
Low cost
cost per
per customer
customer

Profits
Profits High
High
Maximize
Maximize profits
profits while
while defending
defending market
market
Marketing
Marketing Objectives
Objectives share
share
Product
Product Diversify
Diversify brand
brand and
and models
models

Price
Price Match
Match or
or best
best competitors
competitors

Distribution
Distribution Build
Build more
more intensive
intensive distribution
distribution

Promotion
Promotion Increase
Increase to
to encourage
encourage brand
brand switching
switching
 Decline Stage of the PLC
Summary of Characteristics, Objectives, & Strategies
Sales
Sales Declining
Declining

Costs
Costs Low
Low cost
cost per
per customer
customer

Profits
Profits Declining
Declining

Marketing
Marketing Objectives
Objectives Reduce
Reduce expenditures
expenditures and
and milk
milk the
the brand
brand

Product
Product Phase
Phase out
out weak
weak items
items

Price
Price Cut
Cut price
price

Distribution
Distribution Selective:
Selective: phase
phase out
out unprofitable
unprofitable outlets
outlets

Promotion
Promotion Reduce
Reduce to
to minimum
minimum level
level
Three special categories of PLC
 Continued…
A Style is a basic and distinctive mode of expression
appearing in a field of human endeavor. Styles appear in
homes, clothing, art etc.

A Fashion is a currently accepted or popular style in a given

field. Fashion pass through four stages: Distinctiveness,
emulation, mass fashion, decline.

Fads are fashions that comes quickly into public view , are
adopted with great zeal, peak early, and decline very fast.
 Four Introductory
Marketing Strategies
Promotion
High Low

Rapid-
Rapid- Slow-
Slow-
High skimming skimming
skimming skimming
Strategy
Strategy strategy
strategy
Price
Rapid-
Rapid- Slow-
Slow-
Low penetration
penetration penetration
penetration
strategy
strategy strategy
strategy
Marketing strategies for Growth stage
During the growth stage, the firm uses several strategies to sustain
rapid market growth.
 Improves product quality and adds new features and improved
styling.
 Adds new models and flanker products(i.e., products of different
sizes, flavors, and so forth that protect the main product).
 Enters new market segments
 Increases its distribution coverage and enters new distribution
channels.
 Shifts from product- awareness advertising to product-
preference advertising.
 Lowers price to attract the next layer of price – sensitive buyers.
 Marketing strategies for Maturity
stage
Three useful ways to change the course for a brand
are market, product, and marketing program
modification.

Market Modification
Expand the no. of brand users
Convert nonusers into users
Enter new market segments
Attract competitors’ customers
 Continued..
Increase the usage rate among users
Find out new ways to use the product
Find out on what occasions consumers by more
products
 Product modification
Quality improvement:
Aims at increasing the product’s functional performance.
Eg: Aashirvaad, Annapoorna, Pillsbury, Naturefresh

Feature improvement
Aims at adding new features, such as size, weight, materials,
additives, and accessories, that expand the product’s
performance, versatility, safety, or convenience.

Style improvement
Aims at increasing the product’s esthetics appeal.
Eg; New car models, New Coke
 Marketing modification
Prices: Price cut by means of discounts,special prices etc.

Distribution: Adding more distribution channels to increase

the penetration?

Sales Promotion: Rebates,warranties,gurantees,gifts &

contests,rebates,price-off coupons.

Services: Providing more assistance to customers.

 Decline Stage
• Drop unprofitable customers
• Cost cutting measures
• Line pruning
• Harvesting
• Divesting
 Limitations of PLC
• Like human beings products does not have a very predictable
life so the concept of product life cycle is not well suited for
forecasting of product sales.

• It yields a product oriented picture rather than a market

oriented picture.

• Product life cycle may become self fulfilling ,means if sales

peak & then decline managers may misinterpret it as decline
phase & therefore cut the advertising budget and thus making a
further decline.