Product Life Cycle - Promotions Essays - Marketing,

Product Life Cycle - Promotions Final Project Outline Questions: I. Page 99 question # 2 # 2. How would you advertise a toothpaste at the four different stages in its life cycle? 1. Introduction Stage Risk seems to go hand in hand with the introduction stage because the chance of product failure is quite high. Profits will be below zero due to low initial revenues while the toothpaste company covers large expenses for promotion and distribution. We will need to let potential buyers aware of the new toothpaste availability. These buyers must know the toothpastes features, uses, and advantages over other brands. Ill assume this particular toothpaste company has the resources, technological knowledge, and marketing know-how to launch the toothpaste successfully. Having these assets will be a great advantage for the success of the new toothpaste brand. 2. Growth Stage The growth stage will be critical to the toothpastes survival because the competitive reactions to the products success during this stage will affect the toothpastes life expectancy. I would expect the toothpastes sales to rise rapidly and profits to reach a peak and then start to slowly decline. To counter act the sales decline we must try to strengthen its market share and create a competitive niche by emphasizing the toothpastes benefits. To accomplish these tasks we may need to cut prices to stay competitive and gain stronger market position. 3. Maturity Stage Our toothpastes sales curve will peak and begin to decline as will profits. This is the result of intense competition, as similar brands are now in the market. As a result many weaker competitors will be squeezed out or lose consumer interest. We must now turn our attention to develop improvements in our product and find positive differences in our version of toothpaste. We will continue to make fresh new promotional and distribution efforts. We will concentrate on advertising and dealer based promotions. We must also look at another opportunity that exists. Marketers of mature products sometimes expand distribution into global markets. We will need to research and determine if our toothpaste will be accepted and fit the needs of global consumers. 4. Decline Stage The stage where our sales will fall rapidly. New technology or social trends are at times the culprits of this downward spiral. Due to low profits we may cut promotion efforts, eliminate marginal distributors, and eventually plan to phase out our toothpaste. I will assume our toothpaste company has more than one product, a companys future is rarely tied to one product. As one product is declining, our toothpaste, other products of ours are at different stages of the life cycle. Therefore we will need to deal with prolonging the life of existing products and introducing new ones. Our main objective as a company is to meet organizational sales goals. As one product is declining, other products are in the introduction, growth, or maturity stages for our company. II. Page 140 question # 3 # 3. How do we sell this thing? Rank each of theses approaches, in descending order of expected effectiveness. 10. Buy a Cheap Labor-saving Device. 9. Buy a Goat Instead of a Sheep. 8. Buy a Goat. 7. Goat. Guaranteed. 6. Dont Let Someone Else Get Your Goat. 5. Give a Goat a Home. 4. Goat for Sale. 3. Save on a Goat. 2. Buy a Great Goat. 1. Buy an Affectionate Labor-Saving Device. III. Page 238 Question # 1 #1. What do advertisers mean by strategy? What are the key considerations in an advertising strategy? Averting messages arent created on a whim or by a quick flash of inspiration. Advertising is a disciplined art and involves a lot of strategic thinking. Advertisers create messages to accomplish specific objectives, a process called strategic planning. Advertisers determine what you want accomplished, decide on strategies to go about accomplishing, and implementing tactics which make the plan come to life. Advertising involves many different strategies. First there must be a strategic business plan that deals with the broadest decisions made by the organization. Next advertisers have marketing strategies that will identify key advantages for the product or firm in the marketplace. Lastly there are advertising strategy decisions that are made which are crucial to all advertising situations. Advertisers must set objectives and identify the target audience. The advertising product must be compared to competing products features. The product must be position so it is welcomed in the marketplace by consumers. Finally the advertisers must create a brand image and personality for the product. These are all key considerations for the advertising strategy. Targeting an audience for the product I feel is the most important. These audiences are equivalent to a