Product Life Cycle

Maturity Stage 

Three phases of this stage are:  Growth (Sales growth rate starts to decline) Eg: Tata Indigo sold 3,436 units in Feb ’07 (7% increase over Jan ’07 but less than Feb ’06 over Jan ’06 increase)  Stable

(Sales flatten) Eg: Maruti Suzuki’s Alto, Zen,

Estillo and Swift sales stood at 34,759 units in July ’08 as against 34,737 units in July ’07 (up 0.2%).  Decaying

Maturity (Absolute level of sales starts to decline) Eg: Maruti 800 sold 5,970 units in July ’07, but only 4,953 units in July ’08 (17% decline)

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Marketing Strategies: Maturity Stage  Market

Modification:

 Volume

= No. of Brand Users*Usage rate/user  Expand No. of Brand Users:   

Convert Nonusers: Eg – Competitive pricing Enter New Market Segments: Eg - International Markets Win Competitors’ Customers: Eg – Better service

 Increase  



usage of Brands:

Use Product More Frequently: Eg – Loyalty programs, FFP Using more product on each occation: Eg - More usage of Shampoo, toothpaste per occasion Varied Uses: 2

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Marketing Strategies: Maturity Stage Modification

 Product  Quality

Improvement  Feature Improvement  Style Improvement

 Marketing-Mix

Modification

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Source: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/ Maruti-Suzuki-to-launch-new-M800-Uniq/340367/

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Marketing Strategies: Decline Stage 

Harvest



Divest

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Critique of PLC: PLC too varied in shape & duration  Cannot be used as a forecasting tool  Problem in telling what stage a product is in 

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While Maruti Suzuki cars have already proved themselves in all five continents and among them Europe has been a popular destination with the contribution of 56% of company’s cumulative exports. Netherlands with 67,700 units and Italy with over 41, 000, we also have UK (over 34,000) have been the biggest European buyers. Germany and Hungary too are among the countries that have imported over 20,000 Maruti Suzuki cars. In the non-European markets, Algeria is the bags the credit with over 42,000 units, followed by Chile, Srilanka and Nepal. Maruti 800 is the favorite models that rule the most with 178,000 units and Alto follows closely with 152,000 units.

Reference: “Maruti Export Figure Crosses Half a Million Mark”, http://www.articlesbase.com/cars-articles/maruti-export-figure-crosses-half-a-million-mark-444369.html accessed on 20th Aug. 2008

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Source: http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pdf/2007269.pdf accessed on 20th Aug. 2008 10