24-11-2012, 01:52 PM
Product Life Cycles and the Boston Matrix
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Product Life Cycles and the Boston Matrix
Product Life Cycle – shows the stages that products go through from development to withdrawal from the market
Product Portfolio – the range of products a company has in development or available for consumers at any one time
Managing product portfolio is important for cash flow
Product Life Cycle (PLC):
Each product may have a different life cycle
PLC determines revenue earned
Contributes to strategic marketing planning
May help the firm to identify when a product needs support, redesign, reinvigorating, withdrawal, etc.
May help in new product development planning
May help in forecasting and managing cash flow
The Stages of the Product Life Cycle:
Development
Introduction/Launch
Growth
Maturity
Saturation
Decline
Withdrawal
The Development Stage:
Initial Ideas – possibly large number
May come from any of the following –
Market research – identifies gaps in the market
Monitoring competitors
Planned research and development (R&D)
Luck or intuition – stumble across ideas?
Creative thinking – inventions, hunches?
Futures thinking – what will people be using/wanting/needing 5,10,20 years hence?
Maturity:
Sales reach peak
Cost of supporting the product declines
Ratio of revenue to cost high
Sales growth likely to be low
Market share may be high
Competition likely to be greater
Price elasticity of demand?
Monitor market – changes/amendments/new strategies?
Decline and Withdrawal:
Product outlives/outgrows its usefulness/value
Fashions change
Technology changes
Sales decline
Cost of supporting starts to rise too far
Decision to withdraw may be dependent on availability of new products and whether fashions/trends will come around again?
The Boston Matrix
Classifies Products into four simple categories:
Stars – products in markets experiencing high growth rates with a high or increasing share of the market
- Potential for high revenue growth