Marketing Management

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PA 2

Marketing Mix & Marketing Strategies for Product Life Cycle

Srinadh Uddaraju

BUS 510 Marketing Management

Professor : Geraldine Goodstone

June 13 2021

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Marketing Mix & Marketing Strategies for Product Life Cycle

Professional Assignment 2

Stages of Product Life Cycle

There are four stages in the product life cycle; the Introduction phase, growth phase,

maturity phase, and decline phase. Although all products go through these stages in life, the

curve shape and the cycle duration may vary significantly.

Introductory Phase

At this stage, iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 pro in three different colors, red, black, and grey,

will be introduced in the market. But for the iPhone, the low pricing strategy would not be

adopted. It is a high-end product, and its price will be kept high for maintaining the exclusivity

of ownership (Zhang et al.,2017). The company will not start making profits by the first day;

rather, sales boost with time.

Marketing Objectives

● Gain share in the market

● Maintain high cost

● Attract premium market segment

● Gain a competitive advantage in the market

● Create demand for the product

● Prompt customers for product usage

Level of Competition:

There is excessive competition in the marketplace. Some of the competitors of the iPhone 13 are;

● Samsung Galaxy S series

● Samsung Galaxy Note series

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● Xiaomi Mi Ultra series

● OnePlus pro series

These smartphones offer several features at low prices compared to the iPhone.

Marketing Strategy:

At this stage, the product strategy will be used;

iPhone Product Strategy:

A new product of the iPhone 13 will be launched by the start of the year. Technological

specifications would be updated, and a unique operating system will be offered that will run at a

higher speed than any of its competitors. It will promise a more flexible environment for working

and multitasking at a light speed (Thabit & Raewf, 2018). More innovative apps will be offered

in the apple store.

Growth Phase

At this stage, the audience would have built affinity with iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 max

pro. In order not to let down the audience, the quality of the product will be maintained. At this

stage, more money will be spent on marketing for targeting a wider audience and making it the

top most brand among the target group. Customers will provide reviews, features would be

shared, and marketing activities will be conducted to boost sales.

Marketing Objectives:

● Boast sales

● Maintain product quality

● Enhance customers reach

● Target wider audience

● Increase share in the market

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Level of Competition

At this stage, competitors, especially Samsung, will explore new ways of attracting

nonusers by providing premium benefits and offers to the target market. Samsung usually

launches several smartphones every year, having different features and prices suitable for

attracting different market segments (Janka et al., 2017). At this stage, Samsung will decrease

prices and use different distribution channels and retail stores for selling.

Marketing Strategy:

At this stage, the Promotional marketing strategy will be used for iPhone.

iPhone Promotional Strategy:

Due to numerous differentiating factors, iPhone always succeeds in creating its unique

position in the market. For the promotion of the iPhone 13, a new tagline would be developed

(Marshall & Johnston, 2019). Advertisements will portray the changes in the world with the new

iPhone launch. Dramatic launchin events will be set. Social media marketing will be utilized

where different platforms will talk about the unique features of the iPhone 13.

Maturity Phase

At this stage, iPhone sales will level off due to increased competition in the market. The

average unit sales would be at peak, but no more investment will be made in promotional

campaigns. To be competitive, the price of the product will be lowered. A new iPhone would

have been launched at this stage, and iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 max pro will then target

customers who prefer low-priced products by providing them with pricing discounts and other

promotional tactics (Kofi et al., 2017). This stage would mark stabilization of sales.

Marketing Objectives:

● Target new market segment

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● Reduce product price

● Maintain market share

● Maintain product sales

Level of Competition:

iPhone will experience excessive competition from newly launched smartphones. Other

already existing brands, including Samsung, OnePlus, LG, Xiaomi, etc., will lower their prices.

Samsung usually offers incentives to retailers who boast sales. Domestic and international

boosters are added for improving the quality of service.

Marketing Strategy:

iPhone will use the pricing marketing strategy.

Pricing Strategy:

iPhone uses a skimming strategy and maintains high prices of its products. At this stage,

to boost sales, the price of the iPhone 13 would be lowered to make it accessible to a wider

audience as a new iPhone model would have been launched already, offering premium price to

customers.

Decline Phase

This stage marks the ending of the product or the beginning of a new cycle. With every

new iPhone launched, the previous iPhone gets superseded (Rodriguez et al., 2015). To maintain

iPhone, its price would be lowered, and it would be distributed to different retailers and markets.

However, the focus will shift to newly launched iPhones at this stage, and all previous models’

production will be discontinued.

Marketing Objectives:

● Get public attention to the newly launched iPhone

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● Lower price

● Sell all manufactured models of iPhone

● Discontinue production

Level of Competition:

At this stage, competitors will reduce the product's price and distribute their products at a

different location for targeting wider customers.

Marketing Strategy:

Distribution strategy will be used for marketing

Distribution Strategy:

The production of iPhone 13 and iPhone max pro will be discontinued, and all the

developed models will be sent to different locations for sales. Retailers would be offered

incentives for selling them (Fedorova & Gladka, 2019). Apple sells its iPhones through

independent stores in malls, i-Stores, and online websites like eBay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc. Many

iPhones are sold in the second-hand market around the globe due to their status symbol and

durability.

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References

Fedorova, V. & Gladka, O. (2019). DEFINING PERSONNEL MARKETING STRATEGIES.

VERSLAS: TEORIJA IR PRAKTIKA / BUSINESS: THEORY AND PRACTICE ISSN

1648-0627 / eISSN 1822-4202. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2019.14

Janka, W et al. (2017). Apple Products: A discussion Of The Product Lifecycle. The

International Conference On Management Sciences and Management Innovation Volume

31 (MSMI 2017). 10.2991/mini-17.2017.36

Kofi Q. Dadzie, David K. Amponsah, Charlene A. Dadzie & Evelyn M. Winston (2017) “How

Firms Implement Marketing Strategies in Emerging Markets: An Empirical Assessment

of The 4A Marketing Mix Framework”, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 25:3,

234-256, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2017.1311220

Marshall, G., & Johnston, M. (January 27, 2018). Marketing management. 3rd Edition. ISBN13:

9781259637155

Rodriguez, E., et al., (2015)."A Life Cycle Assessment of Apple's iPhone." Conference 2015.

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/73760/462_ready.pdf?sequence=2

&isAllowed=y

Thabit, H. & Raewf, M. (2018). “The Evaluation of Marketing Mix Elements: A Case Study.”

International Journal of Social Sciences and Educational Studies 4(4):100 – 109

10.23918/issues.v4i4p100

Zhang, Y., Ren, S., Liu, Y., Sakao, T., & Huisingh, D. (2017). “A framework for Big Data-driven

product lifecycle management.” Journal Of Cleaner Production, 159, 229-240.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.172