product

• a product are the goods or services that a business provides
• goods are physical products that can be touched
• services are non-physical and cannot be touched
• businesses develop new products to expand their product portfolio
• what is branding's impacts on sales and customer loyalty?

  ·       can add value to a product allowing businesses to charge more

  ·       lead to brand loyalty

  ·       important to a competitive market, sets a USP

       EX: apple product trials (reputation)
• features for good packaging

  A) easy to transport the product

  B) easy to open the container and use the product

  C) marketing,brand image and recognition

  D) promote brand image

  E) info bout the product

  F) suitable for the product to fit in

  G) eye catching

  H) protects the product

  
• the product life cycle are the stages that a product goes through from its launch to its withdrawal from the market. there are 5 stages.
• Research and development

  1. The business is investigating in scientific research and technical development to create a new product before launching it onto the market

  2. The business will be investing heavily in the product but will not be receiving any revenue from sales
• Introduction

  1. The product is launched onto the market

  2. Might be expensive as the business has to advertise in order to promote the product to build brand awareness
• Growth

  1. Cash flow is positive

  2. More customers buy the product and a repeat custom is built up

  3. The business is likely to continue to promote the product to build brand awareness
• Maturity

  1. Sales peak

  2. Competition may become stronger

  3. Business may spend less on promotion

  4. A business tries to maintain this stage for as long as possible
• Decline

  Sales begin to fall and the firm will either decide an extension strategy or discontinuing the product
• .

  
• an extension strategy is marketing activity designed to extend the product lifecycle of existing goods and services.
• Extension strategies include

  ·       Updating packaging

  ·       Adding mor different features

  ·       Changing target market

  ·       New advertising

  ·       Price reduction

  ·       Introducing new variations of the product

  ·       Selling to additional retail outlets

  ·       Use new advertising campaigns
• How stages of the product lifecycle can influence marketing decisions(pricing)

  ·       A branded product is likely to be sold at a high price when first in

  a market. A low price can give a wrong impression about the quality

  ·       Prices are likely to be higher than the rivals at the growth stage as the product still may be ‘newer’ than the rivals

  ·       In the maturity stage, when a business will want to stop sales from declining, the price is likely to be lowered as competitors may have launched newer versions of their products

  ·       Some discounts may be offered at the declining stage
• promotion

  ·       Spending on promotion will be higher in the introduction stage than any other as the business has to promote the product to inform consumers

  ·       Advertising might be reduced in later stages, either because the product is well known or because the business wants to use its marketing budget on newer products

  ·       Promotion might be increased if the business decides to go with an extension strategy, as consumers might be informed and convinced that the product is worth buying once more
• what are the stages of product development?

  .

  A) idea generation

  B) idea screening

  C) concept developing and testing

  D) market strategy and business analysis

  E) product development

  F) market testing

  G) market entry