Product: branding, packaging and the product life cycle

Last time

Before we start: last time, in Pricing methods, channels of distribution and ecommerce, you learned these points. Here they are again on one card. Keep them in mind, because today builds on them.

The product

Marketing has four parts, the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion. The product comes first: if it does not meet customers' needs, nothing else can save it. This lesson covers new products, brands, packaging, and the product life cycle.

Goods and services

A product can be a good, which you can touch, like a bicycle, or a service, like a haircut. Consumer goods are bought by households; capital goods are bought by businesses to make other products. A successful product meets customer needs, at a cost that lets the business make a profit.

Developing new products

Businesses develop new products to attract new customers, stay ahead of competitors, replace products in decline, and spread risk. The steps: generate ideas, screen them, test the idea with customers, make a prototype, test market, then launch. But development is expensive, and many new products fail.

Brands

A brand is a name, symbol or design that makes a product different from rivals. A strong brand builds loyalty, lets the business charge a higher price, and makes new products easier to launch. Building a brand costs a lot of advertising, and one scandal can damage it.

Packaging

Packaging protects the product, keeps it fresh, and makes it easy to carry and store. It gives information, such as ingredients and instructions, and it attracts attention on the shelf. It carries the brand. But it adds cost, and too much packaging harms the environment.

The product life cycle

Every product passes through stages: development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Sales rise slowly at first, fast in growth, level off in maturity, and fall in decline.

Product in the marketing mix

Product decisions affect the other three Ps. A high-quality branded product can carry a high price. The product decides the place: fresh food needs fast distribution, and a luxury product needs selected shops. And it decides the promotion: a new product needs heavy advertising to make customers aware of it.

Stages and actions

Each stage needs different marketing. Here are the typical actions.

Extension strategies

Extension strategies are actions to stop sales falling and lengthen the product's life. Examples: new packaging, new flavours or features, a new market such as exports, new uses, or a lower price. They are cheaper than developing a brand-new product, but they only delay decline.

Using the life cycle

It helps plan marketing: how much to spend on promotion, and when to cut the price. It warns when a new product is needed, so the business is not left with only declining products. But real products do not follow the curve exactly, and the length of each stage is hard to predict.

Mistakes that lose marks

Mistake one: saying profit is highest in introduction. Costs are high and sales low, so profit is low or negative. Mistake two: describing a brand without saying how it helps the business sell. Mistake three: giving an extension strategy for a product in introduction. The fix: the right stage, the right action, and the benefit.

The full-marks tip

The full-marks tip: name the stage of the life cycle, then the action that suits it. For brands and packaging, say how each one raises sales or allows a higher price.

On one card

So, on one card: the product. Keep it for revision.