SALES GROWTH PROGRESSION
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers to these questions are crucial if an appropriate strategy is to be employed to strengthen the product’s position. For example, the product may be redirected on a growth path through repackaging, physical modification, repricing, appeals to new users, the addition of new distribution channels, or the use of some combination of marketing strategy changes. The choice of a right strategy at the maturity stage can be extremely beneficial, since a successfully revitalized product offers a higher return on management time and funds invested than does a new product. This point may be illustrated with reference to a Du Pont product, Lycra, a superstretching polymer invented in its labs in 1959. A little more than 30 years after its humble start as an ingredient for girdles, demand for Lycra is exploding so fast that the company must allocate sales of the marketing dept.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fiber. The product’s success may be directly attributed to a shrewd marketing strategy, initiated during the maturity stage, that allowed Lycra’s use to expand steadily, from bathing suits in the 1970s to cycling pants and aerobic outfits in the 1980s. Teenagers were lured to it and use it in their everyday fashion wardrobes. Avant-garde designers picked up on the trend, using Lycra in new, body-hugging designs. Now, this distinctly unnatural fiber is part of the fashion mainstream. Du Pont’s marketing strategy has paid off well. A recent study showed that consumers would pay 20 percent more for a wool-Lycra skirt than for an all-wool version.

The product life cycle is a useful concept that may be an important aid in mar- keting planning and strategy. A concept familiar to most marketers, it is given a prominent place in every marketing textbook. Its use in practice remains limited, however, partly because of the lack of normative models available for its application and partly because of the vast amount of data needed for and the level of subjectivity involved in its use. One caution that is in order when using the product life cycle is to keep in mind that not all products follow the typical life-cycle pattern. The same product may be viewed in different ways: as a brand (Pepsi Light), as a product form (diet cola), and as a product category (cola drink), for example. Among these, the prod- uct life-cycle concept is most relevant for product forms.