Defining Opinion Leaders Opinion leaders are those people who are able to influence the purchase decisions of consumers. These consumers will view the opinion leader as having a strong degree of knowledge in regards to the product category or a good understanding of the social acceptability of a specific purchase. Generally, opinion leaders have more … Read more…
There are many reasons why companies bring products to market place. The one we would naturally think of is to make more money, but that is generally only one of the reasons. Changing Consumer Needs Companies need to stay in touch the changing needs of consumers. Companies cannot remain with traditional product lines and expect … Read more…
Financial forecasting in marketing Preparing a financial forecast is usually a key requirement in order to have a major marketing campaign, new product, or other marketing project approved. As in most cases, is there is a significant investment up front or during the early part of the campaign/project. Therefore, it becomes necessary to demonstrate that … Read more…
The product life cycle template for Excel – available for free download Often students want to graph multiple products onto the product life cycle using an Excel spreadsheet or some other charting approach. Perhaps surprisingly, this is sometimes awkward to produce easily, given the focus on the Excel spreadsheet to produce graphs rather than images. … Read more…
As it is possible to use the product life cycle as a portfolio analysis tool, which allows us to consider whether we have adequately provided for the future profitability for the firm/brand, it is an obvious that there is a strong connection between the product life cycle and the firm’s new product development requirements. Obviously … Read more…
Marketing mix strategies during the introduction stage Offer a basic product with limited choices, as this also helps test the overall market demand/interest, while keeping costs and logistic challenges relatively low Use marketing communications (IMC/promotion) that are effective in generating initial awareness and reaching innovators. Often specialist websites/blogs and magazines provide a specific audience, as … Read more…
One of the challenges of a mature market in the PLC is that, more than likely, eventually the firm will be faced with competition from new style of product. That is, the most significant competitors are going to introduce technology that is quite different in their design/features (while meeting the same underlying consumer need). For … Read more…
This website has discussed consumer innovators numerous times, due to their importance in generating product adoption and kick-starting the introduction phase of the product life cycle. While innovators are the initial type of consumer, there are other consumer mindsets that are typically discussed in marketing textbooks. The standard consumer adoption categories include: Innovators Early adopters … Read more…
When it comes to brand development, there are four main brand approaches, as shown in the following diagram. As you can see, this diagram is a matrix built around the two attributes of existing/new product category and existing/new brand name. This then determines one of the four boxes, namely: Product line extension Multi-brand Brand extension … Read more…
In modern-day marketing, brand equity is generally highly sought-after. Brand equity can deliver financial benefits to the firm – primarily through greater market share, price premium, and increased customer loyalty. There are multiple decisions to be made however, when introducing a new product into the marketplace. This particular article provides an overview of this process, … Read more…
