Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Business Markets
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Three levels of a Product
Augmented features is the non-physical part of the product
might include coordinated cost-reduction programs, technical
assistance, delivery schedule guarantees, and cooperative
advertising.
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Industrial Product Life-cycle and Strategies
A typical product life cycle is depicted below
Product Life Cycle
• The behavior of the product life-cycle depends on three factors
(i) Changing needs of customers
(ii) Changes in technology, and
(iii) Changing competition
• The product life-cycle concept highlights
a. The need for different marketing strategies at different stages of the
life cycle of the product.
b. The importance of long-term planning for a new product.
B2C: Summary of Product Life Cycle Characteristics, Objectives, and
Strategies (2 of 2)
Strategies
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Growth Stage
• Add additional features/benefits to the product for wider market coverage
• Increase distribution to cover more segments
• Reduce price to penetrate the market
• Do Promotion to remind and reinforce
PLC and Marketing Strategies
Maturity Stage
• Focus on product differentiation (e.g. superior quality of product and service ).
• Intensify distribution for entering new markets.
• Reduce costs to keep prices competitive.
Decline Stage
• Harvest, divest / withdraw the product, or develop a substitute product.
• Minimize promotion and distribution to reduce costs.
• Satisfy existing customers better than competitors.
• As price competition is severe, cut price.
Developing Product Strategies for Existing Products
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• Use perceptual mapping for assessing the relative strengths and weaknesses of
existing products via-a-vis competitors .
Decide product strategies from the following
alternatives:
• Continue the product and marketing strategy
• Modify the product and / or change marketing strategy
• Drop the product
• Add new product or product lines
Branding in Business Markets
What is a Brand?
• It is a name, symbol, design, or combination, intended to
identify the goods and services of one seller and
differentiate them from those of the competitors.
• In short, a brand identifies the seller.
What is a brand equity?
• It is the value (or worth) of a brand.
Purpose of branding
• To identify and differentiate a product / service / business
organization from its competitors.
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Brand Equity :Preferential Actions by Customers