Extending product life cycle
When a product reaches the decline stage, a business can act to extend its life cycle. There are a number of extension strategies that they can use to prevent their product from becoming No longer produced or used.
Extension strategies:
- Change product鈥 New and improved versions of the product can be released鈥 version 2.0 and then version 3.0.
- Change price鈥 Price can be lowered to allow new customers to buy it.
- Change place鈥 Products can be sold in different countries or territories to gain more sales.
- Change promotion鈥 Different advertising or sales promotion techniques can prolong the life of the product, giving it a new image.
- Change packaging鈥 The style of the packaging may be changed to give the appearance of a new and improved product.
- Change usage鈥 Existing customers can be encouraged to buy more of the product or to use it in a different way. For example breakfast cereals used advertising to show consumers eating cereal at different times of the day.
- Change name鈥 If a product has suffered from bad publicity and sales are falling, a tried and tested technique is to simply change the name of the product.