Which of the following is a feature of the introduction stage of a product life cycle quizlet?

What is Product Life Cycle?

Product life cycle is the progression of an item through the four stages of its time on the market. The four life cycle stages are: Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. Every product has a life cycle and time spent at each stage differs from product to product.

Life Cycle Through the Stages

At the Introduction stage the product comes to the market and the business looks to get a foothold on the sales ladder by:

  • Establishing branding and assuring the market of the quality of the new product.
  • An initial low pricing policy to get into the market, though with little competition, price may be high initially to recoup development costs.
  • Selection of a distribution model to get the product onto the market.
  • Promotion of the product through aiming it at specific target groups such as online forums.

After successful Introduction comes the Growth stage. This will look to take developments at the first stage up to another level by:

  • Maintaining the quality of the product and adding any extra services or support that becomes obvious during introduction.
  • Keeping the price at a good level to maintain sales growth.
  • Increasing distribution and sourcing new, faster ways of getting the product onto the shelves.
  • Marketing campaigns aimed at a broader audience and at growing market share for the product.

With growth established, Maturity is the next stage of the life cycle. The business deals with this by:

  • Adding features that will make the product differ from the inevitable competitors that enter the market.
  • Cutting price to counter competition.
  • Revising distribution channels and using incentives to encourage stores to stock the original product in preference to newcomers.
  • New promotions that aim to show differences between products.

When the Decline happens the business will consider:

  • Keeping the product on the market but adding or removing features or finding new uses for it.
  • Reducing costs and production and keeping it just for a niche segment of the market.
  • Discontinuing the product or selling the production rights to another company.

By keeping a strong hold on the four stages of a product life cycle, a business can maximise returns and realise when the time is right to divest itself of the product. By not doing so may cost the business money and lead to a limited life cycle for the product.

A product is a bundle of attributes (features, functions, benefits, and uses) that a person receives in an exchange. In essence, the term “product” refers to anything offered by a firm to provide customer satisfaction, tangible or intangible. Thus, a product may be an idea (recycling), a physical good (a pair of jeans), a service (banking), or any combination of the three

Four Levels of the Product

  • The Core Product: satisfies the most basic need of the customer
  • The Tangible Product : are those that can be touched and held. This idea can be expanded to also include the characteristics of the product that directly touch the buyer in the buying decision. These are the product elements that the customer will use to evaluate and make choices: the product features, quality level, brand name, styling, and packaging
  • The Augmented Product : includes the tangible product and all of the services that support it. When the tangible product is a service, there is still an augmented product that includes support services. Westin hotels offer hotel nights with a specific set of features as their tangible product. The augmented product also includes dry cleaning services, concierge services, and shuttle services, among others.
  • The Promised Product: has an implied promise, which is a characteristic that is attached to the product over time. The promised product is the long-term result that the customer hopes to achieve by selecting the product. The promised product may be financial—the resale value of a car, home, or property, for example—but it is often more aspirational. The customer hopes to be healthier, happier, more productive, more successful, or enjoy greater status

  • is an inexpensive product that requires a minimum amount of effort on the part of the consumer in order to select and purchase it. (Bread, soda, coffee)
  • For convenience products, the primary marketing strategy is extensive distribution. The product must be available in every conceivable outlet and must be easily accessible in these outlets

  • are usually more expensive and are purchased occasionally. The consumer is more likely to compare a number of options to assess quality, cost, and features
  • There is a distinction between heterogeneous and homogeneous shopping products. Heterogeneous shopping products are unique. The purchase decision with heterogeneous shopping products is more likely to be based on finding the right fit than on price alone
  • Homogeneous shopping products are very similar. A typical shopper will look for the lowest price available for the features that they desire.

products and services that consumers are willing to make an extra effort to obtain. will pay more for these products. 

are those the consumer never plans or hopes to buy

Characteristics of Service Products

  • Intangible: not able to be touched
  • Simultaneous Production and Consumption: Service products are consumed at the same time they are being produced
  • Little Standardization : Because service products are so closely related to the people providing the service, ensuring the same level of satisfaction every time is very difficult
  • High Buyer Involvement : With many service products, the purchaser may provide a great deal of input into the final form of the product

which are tangible products, along with all of the services that support them. When companies devise product strategies and decide whether or not to augment their products with additional services, they typically evaluate whether the following criteria will be met:

  1. Services can provide a more complete and satisfying customer experience.
  2. Services can increase the total revenue for each sale.

  • Improved Customer Experience
  • Increased Revenue per Customer

The Role of Product Marketing

Product marketing is the function of understanding the target customer’s needs, and promoting and selling the product to the target customer. In many organizations this is a different function from product management, which is responsible for defining the product that the company will build.

  • The product marketer is focused on the market
  • The product management function will use the inputs from product marketing to define detailed product requirements and oversee the development of products that meet those requirement

Stages of the Product Life Cycle

  1. Product development
    1. investment is made
    2. sales have not begun
    3. new product ideas are generated, operationalized, and tested
  2. Market introduction
    1. costs are very high
    2. slow sales volumes to start
    3. little or no competition
    4. demand has to be created
    5. customers have to be prompted to try the product
    6. makes little money at this stage
  3. Growth
    1. costs reduced due to economies of scale
    2. sales volume increases significantly
    3. profitability begins to rise
    4. public awareness increases
    5. competition begins to increase with a few new players in establishing market
    6. increased competition leads to price decreases
  4. Maturity
    1. costs are lowered as a result of increasing production volumes and experience curve effects
    2. sales volume peaks and market saturation is reached
    3. new competitors enter the market
    4. prices tend to drop due to the proliferation of competing products
    5. brand differentiation and feature diversification is emphasized to maintain or increase market share
    6. profits decline
  5. Decline
    1. costs increase due to some loss of economies of scale
    2. sales volume declines
    3. prices and profitability diminish
    4. profit becomes more a challenge of production/distribution efficiency than increased sales

Marketing through the Product Cycle

  • Market Introduction Stage
  • Growth Stage
  • Maturity Stage
  • Decline Stage

It is time to visit your doctor for your annual check-up. Dr. Kapoor checks your vitals, draws blood for testing, and weighs you. She tells you that you are fit and healthy and hands you your chart with a gold star on it. Identify all of the relevant characteristics for this service product experience:

  • little standardization
  • intangible
  • simultaneous production and consumption

An offering by an organization that provides tangible or intangible customer satisfaction is the definition of a: business strategy

Managing the Product Portfolio

  1. Analyzing SBU Performance
  2. Analyzing Market Opportunities

What are the classification groups for consumer products? speciality, unsought, convenience, future
convenience, shopping, services, speciality

speciality, shopping, unsought, convenience

  • Product Modification
  • Repositioning

  • A product line can contain one product or hundreds of products. The number of products in a product line refer to its depth, while the number of separate product lines owned by a company is the product line width.
  • Line-Extension Strategies :
  • Line-Filling Strategies :

Product proliferation: the introduction of new varieties of the initial product or products that are similar (e.g., a ketchup manufacturer introduces hickory-flavored and pizza-flavored barbecue sauces and a special hot dog sauce). Brand extension: strong brand preference allows the company to introduce the related product under the brand umbrella (e.g. Jell-O introduces pie filling and diet desserts under the Jell-O brand name). Private branding: producing and distributing a related product under the brand of a distributor or other producers (e.g., Firestone producing a less expensive tire for Costco).

Factors Influencing the Pace of Product Development

  • New Products Bring Risk
  • Role of New Products in the Portfolio

Consumer Adoption Patterns

  • Innovators: are willing to take risks and are viewed by their peers as risk takers
  • Early Adopters : have a high degree of opinion leadership among the adopter categories
  • Early Majority : adopters are more risk averse than early adopters, so they wait for the wrinkles to be ironed out of new products before making a purchase
  • Late majority adopters arrive after the “average” participant has embraced an innovation
  • Laggards are the last to adopt an innovation

is a product development process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process

The Lean Startup Methodology

is based on the assumption that it’s essential to get real market data from product users as early as possible in the design process

New-Product Development Process

  1. Stage 1: Generating New Product Ideas: Generating new product ideas is a creative task that requires a particular way of thinking. Coming up with ideas is easy, but generating good ideas is another story
  2. Stage 2: Screening Product Ideas : The second stage of the product development process is idea screening. This is the first of many screening points.
  3. Stage 3: Concept Development and Testing :: the product concept is a synthesis or a description of a product idea that reflects the core element of the proposed product (rapid prototyping)
  4. Stage 4: Business Case Analysis : Before companies make a significant investment in a product’s development, they need to be sure that it will bring a sufficient return.
  5. Stage 5: Technical and Marketing Development : technical development processes vary greatly according to the type of product
  6. Stage 6: Test Marketing and Validation : is distinguished by the fact that the test group represents the full market, the consumer must make a purchase decision and pay for the product, and the test product must compete with the existing products in the actual marketing environment
  7. Stage 7: Launch : This stage marks the beginning of the product life cycle.
  8. Stage 8: Evaluation : after launch the marketer finally has real market data about how the product performs in the wild, outside the test environment

Methods that attempt early identification of elusive consumer tastes or trends

Creating Successful Product Concepts

  1. Organizational Capabilities
  2. Customer and Competitor Influences
  3. Outside World Influences
  4. Enabling Sciences and Technologies

Evaluating Product Concepts

The goal of the initial product development process is to generate ideas, actively evaluate the ideas, and create a viable product concept

    • Kickstarter is a crowd-funding platform that allows entrepreneurs to pitch a new product concept to potential funders. The entrepreneur receives immediate feedback on the idea from a broad market and, if it generates enough support, funding to bring the product to market.
    • Etsy offers an e-commerce platform from which entrepreneurs can sell products on the Internet without having to develop their own e-commerce Web sites to present products or process payments.
    • 3-D printers create physical products from digital files. These products can be tested and refined with users much more quickly and economically than traditionally manufactured prototypes and products. The video below demonstrates a number of interesting examples.

Commercializing New Products

  • Test Marketing
  • The Launch
  • Evaluation

  1. Defining Market Requirements: based on the buyer persona will increase the chances that the final product meets the market need.
  2. Defining Product Requirements: he product team seeks a tight match between the market need and the product that is designed, developed, and delivered
  3. Creating the Go-to-Market Plan : The market requirements are the major input to the marketing plan that will be used during the product launch.

  • is to improve the success of the product launch
  • est marketing provides a wonderful opportunity to get feedback from buyers in a realistic buying situation in which they experience the full marketing mix
    • Duration of testing: the product should be tested long enough to account for market factors to even out, but a long test cycle delays the broad launch and may diminish the impact of the product announcement.
    • Selection of test markets: the test market should reflect the norms for the new product in such areas as advertising, competition, distribution system, and product usage.
    • Sample size determination: the number of markets and tests must account for the different variables in the market, while allowing for the fact that each test market adds cost to the launch budget and time to the product release cycle.

  • Press Strategies: is to build broad visibility for the product, backed up by the credibility of the media outlet.
  • Price Discounts : Companies will sometime offer a price discount during a product launch. When we cover pricing in more detail in the next module, we will discuss when this can be an effective strategy.
  • Channel Partner Incentives : If the company depends on a partner to sell or distribute the pricing, it might choose to offer pricing discounts and incentives to the distribution partner. A new product carries some risk, and an incentive at launch can encourage channel partners that might be reluctant to add the new product or to sell it aggressively.

The difference in this final stage of the process is that the marketer has the benefit of significant market data for the evaluation, which can help improve the marketing plan going forward. It is only at this stage—after the product launch—when the marketer can see which buyers purchase the product, how competitors respond, and how the new product interacts with the company’s other products in the marketplace.

Casey enjoyed being out in nature and watching wildlife. He wanted the convenience of taking high-quality pictures quickly and under a variety of circumstances. To satisfy these needs Casey must address them through which product level?

Hilliers’ Garden Centers offers not only plants and products customers need for their gardens, but also a gardening club that anyone can join. The garden club Hilliers’ offers is considered a(n):
core product

A company just received an influx of investor cash for its consumer 3D printer product. The company is developing two prototypes to be tested and run through a few focus groups. This 3D printer product is at which life cycle stage? growth stage
maturity stage

Which stage of the product life cycle requires marketers to pay particular attention to the distribution of their product? market introduction stage
development stage

The goal of a marketer’s interaction with the product life cycle is to:

A hiking boot’s profits are declining because new competition has entered the market, but its cost has also declined due to increased volume of production. What stage of the product development life cycle is the hiking boot in? growth stage

Which phase of the product life cycle requires potentially the most significant amount of money for marketing campaigns? development stage
growth stage

market introduction stage

A group of products in an organization that has some common elements and that is marketed to one general market is the definition of a: product strategic business unit

An organization groups together similar products into product lines. What is it called when an organization groups those product lines into specific market-targeting strategy groups? marketing mix units product lines

strategic business unit (SBU)

Which of the following statements is true about managing a product portfolio? A company's portfolio analysis considers a narrow range of market factors. Companies need to consider market growth and market share rates and not a product’s life cycle.

Which is a true statement about the diffusion-of-innovation theory? The late majority adopts new products before the early majority and approaches innovations eagerly. Laggards are considered opinion leaders and are more socially connected than other groups.

Innovators are always the first to adopt innovative and new products and they are viewed as risk takers.

If a company’s new product is not a new technology and it’s an extension of a current product line, what type of adopters will be interested in it?
Laggards

Which of the five customer adoption pattern groups is typically slow to act and embrace an innovation after the “average” participant has adopted it? Early majority Early adopters

If a marketer does not choose her marketing mix just right for these two adoption categories, a new product launch and adoption will probably stall.

early adopters and early majority

If your new product launch meets a good market and satisfies that market, it is considered a:
market saturation fit product-market miss

A company is trying to figure out what products to offer, when to add new products, and when current products should be discontinued. What tool will assist the company in answering all of those questions? product life cycle
marketing mix

product portfolio management

What stage is critical in the product development process for weeding out potentially costly product mistakes? generating product ideas stage concept development and testing stage

screening product ideas stage

Identify the first stage of the product development process: business case analysis
screen product ideas

generate and collect new product ideas

Why does an organization tackle stage four in the product development process, business case analysis?

To be sure a product will bring enough financial returns to justify its significant development costs

How is the marketing department involved in the technical and marketing development stage of the product development process?
They generate and launch marketing and advertising campaigns. They test the product prototype for market viability and concept validation.

They test product prototypes with target customers and identify the most effective marketing mix for the new product.

Which stage of the product development process sometimes includes rapid prototyping?

concept development and testing stage

Pat shopped at Target for new summer shorts. After trying on three different brands and price comparing, he decided to buy the Dockers shorts. While heading to the checkout stand, he spotted earphones hanging on the endcap of the electronics area. Remembering he needed new earbuds for his iPod, he grabbed a set and paid for it all at the checkout counter. What types of product categories did Pat experience in this shopping trip? convenience and speciality

PreviousNext

Dhrish has flown into Chicago for work. He needs a place to eat dinner and hasn’t had time to research local restaurants. Dhrish calls the concierge desk at his hotel and asks for a few recommendations. After settling on one close by, Dhrish thanks the concierge and hangs up the phone. Identify all of the relevant characteristics for this service product experience:
high buyer involvement PreviousNext

  • intangible
  • simultaneous production and consumption

Audio-Technica’s ATH-M50 studio headset lost market share when Bose introduced a new headset that matched the ATH-M50’s features. Although the cost to produce the headset had dramatically declined over the last two years, Audio-Technica was soon rolling out the ATH-M50x version, and the marketing team decided it was time to lower the price on the ATH-50. What strategy should the marketing team use with this product in the maturity stage of the product life cycle process?
prompt potential customers to buy the product pit the new model against the old version PreviousNext

focus on differentiating the brand and put emphasis on its features

Sidney works as a marketer at a fast-paced company selling handheld barcode scanner tools. Most of the sales had begun online through the company website, but lately the company has been receiving requests to purchase it scanners through retail stores. Demand has been increasing, and a new competitor is edging into Sidney’s company’s market. Which area should be Sidney’s next marketing focus in this product's growth stage? price—discounts
promotion—customer communication PreviousNext

Microsoft has multiple desktop operating systems, with modified versions for their Microsoft Surface Pro tablet series and cell phones. Microsoft’s wide range of operating system software is an example of a company applying: a marketing mix product life cycles
PreviousNext

product portfolio management

General Electric has many products and product lines. It has grouped many of these product lines into their own divisions that are responsible for their own profitability. These divisions created specific market approaches based on the targeted consumer. This is an example of a company using: marketing mix units product lines
PreviousNext

strategic business units (SBUs)

If you as a marketer are collecting ideas from SWOT analysis, and customer focus groups and exploring product ideas, knowing that most of them will not end up reaching the market, you are in what stage of the new product development process?
business case analysis stage PreviousNext

generate and collect new product ideas stage

Shirley analyzed her company’s product line of refrigerator magnet products. She then deleted a few tourist magnets that had lost their market growth and added in a Grumpy Cat magnet. She discovered the emoji magnet group needed more market penetration, so she designed a campaign, looked at the total line statistics, and fit and identified a few synergies for new products to address (like adding emoji magnets with a clip to hold papers on the fridge). Shirley is using which big-picture product management marketing approach to adjust the company’s magnet line? Focusing on pricing and positioning strategies for a few products
Considering overall fit of the product line and not individual products within the product line. PreviousNext

Considering each product, the way they collectively work together, and the way they can influence each other

Michael began working with the invention platform Quirky to develop an overflow sensor that alerts your mobile device if it detects unwanted standing water in basements, vacation homes, or other unmonitored areas. After he cycled through a few different paper iterations of the product, he and the team created a working prototype. What stage of the product development process is Michael’s new product in? technical and marketing development stage
screening product ideas stage PreviousNext

concept development and testing stage

When the “world's best travel jacket,” BauBax, was launched at the end of last year, the company behind BauBax set up a new website, press releases, and a social media campaign. Before launching to a wide audience, the company rolled out the jacket to a smaller pilot group for feedback. The company discovered the jacket was having trouble zipping up and that some of the pockets were in awkward positions for customers. Getting the product feedback from customers in a timely manner allowed the company to retool the troubled areas before a wider product launch. In what part of the marketing introduction stage did the BauBax team perform well?
price—discounts
place—distribution

promotion—pilot customer communication

HP created a new product called the TouchPad to directly compete with Apple’s iPad. It ended up being a flop and costing the company $885 million in assets and $755 million in winding down costs. This product is an example of: how important technical and marketing development are in the product development process
how important it is to try out new products in a company’s product line PreviousNext

how important the screening product ideas process is at weeding out expensive failures

Emy is at dinner with her group of friends when one of them pulls out a new pen that not only writes but takes pictures. It also saves what it writes on a flash drive so the user can download the file later to her laptop through bluetooth. She rolls her eyes and makes a few skeptical comments about the fancy device. Emy’s attitude fits closest to which adopter category?
Early adopters
PreviousNext

TurboTax developed an innovative software product years ago that filled the gap between the individuals who wanted to do their own taxes and the ones who sought out professional tax advice. TurboTax’s product hit a sweet spot with the market, and its sales have followed a steady increase through 2014. TurboTax developed a product that was a:

Brad begins work with his company’s newly created product line of personal care products. What overall framework does Brad need to use as he starts to work on the marketing mix for these products? Revise the pricing and positioning strategies of the product line
PreviousNext

Focus on each product and the way they collectively fit together as a product line

A company’s new eco-friendly dish soap is an extension of its current dish soap line. What type of adopters would probably be most interested in it? Laggards
Innovators PreviousNext

Which of the following is a characteristic of the introduction stage of the product life cycle?

Introduction Stage: The introduction stage shows low sales numbers as the product is being introduced in the market. Profit is zero or negative in this stage because of the heavy expenses of product introduction.

What is the introduction stage of the product life cycle?

The introduction stage is when a product is first launched in the marketplace. This is when marketing teams begin building product awareness and reaching out to potential customers. Typically, when a product is introduced, sales are low and demand builds slowly.

What are the main objectives of the introduction stage of the product life cycle?

In the introduction phase, the focus is on creating product awareness to motivate your target market to consider you when making a buying decision. The introductory stage is rarely profitable because of high distribution and promotion expenses but low sales.

What are the 5 stages of product life cycle introduction?

The product life cycle is the progression of a product through 5 distinct stages—development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.