Extending product life cycle
When a product reaches the decline stage, a business can act to extend its The theory that a product moves through different stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.
There are a number of The different ways a business can attempt to prolong the life of a product, eg through changing its features. that they can use to prevent their product from becoming No longer produced or used.
Extension strategies:
- Change product – new and improved versions of the product can be released e.g. version 2.0 and then version 3.0.
- Change price – price can be lowered to allow new customers to buy it.
- Change place – products can be sold in different countries or territories to gain more sales.
- Change promotion – different advertising or sales promotion techniques can prolong the life of the product, giving it a new image.
- Change packaging – the style of the packaging may be changed to give the appearance of a new and improved product.
- Change usage – existing customers can be encouraged to buy more of the product or to use it in a different way. For example breakfast cereals have used advertising to show consumers eating cereal at different times of the day.
- Change name – 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.
