Marketing Research: Product Life Cycle Marketing

5/23/2008 7:34:33 PM

Markets and products go through predictable life cycles. Regardless of how old your market is and what degree of competition you experience, in order to turn the tables on your competition, you must first plot the location of your product’s lifecyle on the maturity curve.

Your location on the maturity curve determines the type and degree of competition you will encounter. It also reveals the amount of market growth, operating margins and net profits you can realistically expect.

Marketing Research: The Three Stages Of A Market

1. Introduction: This is known as the “pioneering” stage of a market. This is when new ideas and technology are introduced and accepted or commercially abandoned. The old adage often holds true here; “a pioneer is the man with an arrow in his back.”

2. Growth: “Even a one-eyed pig can find an acorn” in these markets. These are the industries where the average business person can make a good living and where the smart, aggressive “super servants” can become wealthy.

3. Maturity: In established mature markets there is end user saturation, fierce competition amongst few competitors and price meets its own demand.

Turn The Tables In Your Favor With Scientific Marketing Research…

After plotting your location on the maturity curve, the next step to “turning the tables” on your competition is to determine your company’s location on the profit curve.

If your profits are steady or increasing, you are well positioned relative to your competition regardless of your location on the maturity curve. All things being equal, if your gross operating profits are flat or decreasing, your competition has the superior market position relative to the “S Curve.” To restore profitability, you must fracture the market and reposition your company.

Correctly repositioning your company is the quickest way to turn the tables on your competition and back in your company’s favor.

To learn more about Marketing Research: Product Life Cycle Marketing visit the Marketing Strategies Catalog section of this site.

Tim Cohn is a Google Advertising Professional and author of the book For Sale By Google.