Product: Life Cycle

There are many things that one can identify when it comes to product. The first would be the difference between product line, product range and product mix. A product line is a set of related product that are sold by a company, this is different from the product mix, which is the variety of all product lines that the company produces. All of this is summarized in a  product range which is all of the types of products made by a company. When a company creates a product, it develops according to its own life cycle. A product life cycle is the pattern of sales of a product from its launch to withdrawal. It begins in the introduction stage is when it has been introduced to the market, and all testing and developmental tweaks have been performed. During this phase, sales are often low and increase slowly. People are not aware of this product so lots of promotion and advertising are focusing on spreading the word about this basic model. The next stage is growth. Growth happens when the product is well received by the market, and usually sales grow significantly. Eventually, growth may decline due to many variables - competition or changes in costumer taste or technology. Whne growth slows or stops all together, it reaches the next point of the life cycle, maturity. At this stage sales fail to grow, however, they do not necessarily stop. At this stage the product reaches its maximum demand, and saturation. During maturity, companies might use an extension strategy to lengthen the maturity period of a product. For example, companies might use sales to attract customers, or expand the product completely with new models. When you have telephone for example, you might create it in different colors, to attract further sales, or you might start producing accessories, such as covers, headphones, etc. to help lengthen the stage.

During the life cycle,many changes are likely to happen in the fields of promotion, price or even the product it self. Promotion amounts change during the life of the product. During the introduction stage, high promotion is needed to make the consumers aware of the product's arrival to the market. Then, costumers need to be convinced to repeat their purchase, so brand identification might be the move to help establish loyalty. During maturity brand imaging continues, and positive difference from competitors is stressed. By the decline stage, advertising is very limited. The changes that happen in the field of price are relative as well. During introduction it is likely that the prices will be high compared to competitors if the company uses the technique of skimming. The prices may be low, if the company prefers penetration. If the company has chosen the penetration technique, then during growth the price of the product might rise. During maturity it is very likely that competitors will begin to enter the market, so the company needs to keep the prices at a competitive level. During the decline, lower prices are usually used to sell of stock, or if the product has a small number of followers, the prices could even rise. The product itself changes as well. During  introduction the product is its basic model. During growth, planning of product improvements and developments is taking place to maintain the consumers appeal. When a product reaches maturity, new models and accessories might be used to help expand it, and extend its life. When it reaches decline, it is ready to be replaced with different products, and withdraws from the market.
New product development may be important to some businesses, which are effected by technological changes. Cellphone market, or Nokia as a company would be very dependent on new product development. They have to create new systems, ways, and designs to compete with the growing technology of the world and its competitors. This can cause a problem however,as financing NDP might be difficult as research and development costs have to paid years before any returns can be earned, and even without a guarantee. 

Product: The most obvious aspect of the Marketing Mix

Product is the main part of the marketing mix. Without product, you cannot market. Products have different forms. They can be a service, or actually tangible, and can usually be categorized into three different categories. The first category is Convenience Goods. They are products in which consumers hold very limited shopping efforts. Such products must be always available, and its brand name to be well established. A good example of a convenience good is toothpaste. Shopping goods, on the other hand are goods in which the consumer is willing to invest a great deal of time and effort. For example, they are willing to spend lots of time looking for a new computer. Wanting the best quality, price and innovation, therefor would be important. Specialty goods are those that only a small spectrum would be interested in. Industrial goods can  be broken down into subgroups, depending on their uses. This type of good would be tractor, or book biding machine used in professional printing presses. They are the goods that everyday life does not request, and would be purchased only under certain circumstances. And within that, products of the company are classified.
Product line refers to the assortment of similar things that the firm holds. For example, Maybelline's product like features lipstick, lip-gloss, lip-stain, etc. In contrast, the firm’s product mix is the combination of different product lines that the firm holds. For example, Hersey's does not do just chocolate bars right? Other firms can maintain either numerous lines or fewer lines, but hopefully all have some common theme. Numerous lines would represent a wide product mix. Maybelline has a many product lines, but they are all related in the fact that they are cosmetics. For instance, they offer mascaras, foundations, concealers, eyeliners, etc. Depth refers to the variety that is offered within each product line. Maybelline offers a great deal of depth in mascaras, with different colors and purposes for each one.