For second-tier PC manufacturers this is the phase of the product lifecycle where pricing becomes the competitive weapon of choice, and in many cases, the other aspects of the marketing mix are ignored. Pricing as the only differentiator used during this phase often impacts the largest, most capital-intensive vendors the greatest. Prior to their acquisition by HP, Compaq was well-known for having one of the highest cost structures in the industry, which inevitably lead Compaq to offer price protection on inventories that are obsoleted due to lack of sales through distribution channels (Lee, Padmanabhan, Taylor, and Whang 2000).
The next phase of the product lifecycle is typically called the maturity phase. For products that have been successfully launched and nurtured through their lifecycles, this is the phase where sales are at their peak, the cost per customer is low, and as costs of the products' development have been covered in previous phases, profitability is high. As a result, the marketing mix concentrates on maximizing profits while looking to diversify product lines through either product line extensions or the introduction of entirely next generation products. This is also the phase where pricing becomes the most dominantly used competitive differentiator as by this point many other PC manufacturers have been able to either develop or acquire feature-based technologies and functionality. Price wars are common during this phase of a PCs' product life cycle, and advertising often shifts from purely concentrating on the product's benefits to focusing more on the entire brands' value and its trustworthiness and service reputation. An example of this is Dell's reliance on brand messaging in their enterprise-oriented and large-business oriented laptop and PC systems marketing strategies.
The last phase of the product lifecycle is called decline or harvesting, and concentrates on overcoming pure price competition through intensive bundling, extensive use of price protection to move quickly obsoleting products through indirect distribution channels, and a heavy reliance on brand-based selling. The promotional efforts at this point in a product's life are aimed at moving the PCs off the shelves of retailers through cash incentives to sales people and the use of sales contests as well. Typically manufacturers will move their products...
The use of forecasting and supply chain management techniques is also pervasive throughout Dell's product life cycle planning programs (Fields, 2006). How different Issues for Product Development are applied in the organization? Dell is best known for its innovation of the direct sales model and rapid pace of innovation in the build-to-order sales model of personal computers, peripherals and entire networks (Salvador, de Holan, Piller, 2009). The build-to-order selling strategy which
MARKET ANALYSIS & PRODUCT INNOVATION Market Analysis and Product Innovation: Facebook Inc. In an increasingly competitive environment, business organizations must remain innovative. They must deliver offerings that resonate with the ever changing needs of the consumer and the operating environment (Akbar & Tzokas, 2013). This often calls for product innovation, which has been marked as a crucial driver of competitive advantage in the contemporary marketplace (Song & Chen, 2014). Nonetheless, product innovation
Product Life Cycle No matter the product, every product goes through what is known as the product life cycle. The stage of the cycle that a product is in dictates how much of a focus the product gets and what will happen going forward in terms of that product being added to, updated or even entirely replaced. The author of this report will speak of a fictional company with a fictional
The strategy would prove successful in assisting the rapid proliferation of the Norton Antivirus packages. Accordingly, Wikipedia (2010) reports that "Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security, a related product, held a 61% U.S. retail market share for security suites as of the first half of 2007." (Wikipedia, 1) In addition to casting a dominant shadow over its sector of the technology industry, this would make Symantec a leading developer
Figure 1 provides a graphical representation of the effects of consistently high levels of R&D investments spread evenly across all product lines. Figure 1: Outcome of Initial R&D and Pricing Analysis For the implications to Total Income based on these decision points, see Table 2. Note that consistently high R&D spending, not price declines, are what is fueling the overall sales growth. At the end of the second iteration, Sales Volume
In the most successful SMB implementations of collaborative new product development tools including PLM and PDM, priority is put first on process definition and process improvement. Once processes have been defined, continually managed to greater efficiency and as optimized as possible, then the use of information systems technologies and platforms to automate them are added (Christensen, Magnusson, Zetherstrom, 2006, 583-585). PLM as a technique or strategy is not automated
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