For the footwear industry the entire product life is short because of the new trends in the
market, different categories in the customer base and due to wear and tear because of the
regular usage. Any new product that is launched should differentiate itself from the others
and should have uniqueness. Introduction Stage In the introduction stage, the firm seeks to
build product awareness and develop a market for the product. Growth Stage In the growth
stage, the firm seeks to build brand preference and increase market share. Maturity Stage At
maturity, the strong growth in sales diminishes. Competition may appear with similar
products. The primary objective this point is to defend market share while maximizing
profit. Decline Stage As sales decline, the firm has several options maintain the product,
possibly rejuvenating it by adding new features and new uses. Harvest the product reduce
costs and continue to offer it, possibly to a loyal niche segment. Discontinue the product,
liquidating remaining inventory or selling it to another firm that is willing to continue the
product. Converse’s cycle began with the product development stage, in which the company
found and developed basketball shoes. At the introduction stage, Converse experienced
slow growth and low profits as it was distributed to the market. Relevant strategies at this
stage are as follows to use cost-plus pricing to build selective distribution to build
awareness among early adopters to use heavy sales promotion. Converse then successfully
entered the growth stage, in which was marked by rapid sales growth and increasing profits.
Converse used strategies to offer product extension of price the product that will penetrate
the market to build intensive distribution to build awareness in the mass market to reduce
sales promotion to take advantage of heavy consumer demand. At the maturity stage,
Converse’s sales growth slowed down and profits stabilized. Possible options for Converse
to diversify brand and models o Price to match or beat competitors to build more intensive
distribution and stress brand benefits to Increase sales promotion to encourage brand
switching. Converse entered a decline stage in the 1980s and 1990s and sales and profits
dwindled. Failed to keep up with the times, aggressive new competitors rapidly took market
with new high- performance shoes. During the decline stage, companies decides whether
they should maintain, harvest, or drop the product. Potential strategies are as follows to
phase out weak items to cut the price, to phase out unprofitable outlets, retain loyal, to
reduce sales promotion to minimal level. After being acquired by Nike, the company
discovered that despite its dwindling market share, the Converse brand had acquired a loyal
following. After standing by and extending its line with new designs and new channels,
Converse has begun a new life cycle as a small but thriving lifestyle brand. Surfboards.
Surfboards are in the maturity stage of their life cycle. Most people that share this hobby all
ready have a quiver of a few boards. So, companies have to alter their marketing scheme or
come up with something new to improve or ad utility to the board so economically it is
justified to purchase one because they are pricey.
As the sport ages there are plenty of new innovations that concocted every year. There has
been a drastic improvement since the beginning of surfing but over the last few decades
there have not been many new profound innovations. Most are new materials or new shapes
that can slightly change the user's experience on the board. Another approach is to have
specialty boards that specialize in certain types of water or waves types. This is a great
approach as it will entice customers to purchase such speciality boards to fuse on their
home court or beach of choice. How I believe this will affect the future market is that there
is so much competition in the market that the prices keep coming down and there are ways
to order boards that are 100% customizable. This is excellent for the consumer because now
everyone can get creative in their approach to catching all sorts of waves in various styles.
A product that I am familiar with is DVD Players, which is currently in a declining stage of
the product life cycle. About 15-20 years ago, DVD players were cutting edge technology
and rapidly replaced by older VHS players. Between the years of approximately 1995 and
2005, DVDs experienced rapid growth and were the main way that most Americans
watched movies at home. During this period, broadband internet technology had not
reached a point where video would be easily compressed and streamed over the web. Today
it is now possible for people the rent and download movies on the interest through services
like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. Further more high capacity blue-ray disks have
become the preferred way to watch high definition content. The convenience of web-based
entertainment has caused DVD player sales to go on the decline and there is little hope that
they will ever recover. In the coming years I would expect DVD player sales to decline
further and eventually become fully obsolete around the late 2020's. I of course still have a
VHS player as well as a DVD player, there are some things that I am just not willing to get
rid of. Gaming consoles are one of those items that continue to capture the market with
each advanced technology incorporated in the subsequent game released. The introduction
of the gaming consoles created a platform for companies to showcase their might by
identifying existing gaps in the gaming world and creating products that meet these specific
needs (Edwards, 2020). Consequently, with each subsequent generation, a more improved
gaming console is released. To a great extent, the gaming console is still leveraging on the
market growth stage characterized by a growing demand for better gaming devices which in
turn maximizes productivity. The current generation of gamers is always excited about the
possibility of having the latest console that appeals to the imaginative and creative minds.
The growth phase continues to create opportunities for the gaming consoles to evolve and
enjoy a generational fanbase. The PS4 is one gaming console that thrived greatly during the
growth phase mainly because of the numerous exclusive games that ran better on the
platform compared to the Xbox.
Even though the gaming world has opportunities for endless growth, every item created has
a timeframe and gaming consoles are no exception. The PS4 enjoyed continued dominance
during the growth phase. However, market maturity was reached when the product
saturated the market and the PS5 was established as the newest gaming console.
Consequently, the focus of retailers shifted to the promotion of the PS5, and this has made
the gaming console to enjoy a steady market dominance. So, even though the PS4 is still
available in stock, the market decline for the product is likely to continue as competition
from PS5 continues in addition to the move by other competitors to emulate and rise on the
success of the PS4. The influence of the PS4 is still dominant, but the desires of the present
generation of gamers continue to evolve and thus market decline is inevitable. Ultimately,
the product may be pushed out of the market completely.
