Blackberries, The Boston Matrix and The Product Lifecycle

Only 3 years ago Blackberries were everywhere in Dubai, Iphone's were rare, at the weekend when i told the man in Etisalat I had a Blackberry, he laughed and told me to get a new phone!

This article HERE from the BBC hints that Blackberry is entering the decline stage of its Product Life Cycle. As we talked about in class the Product Life Cycle is only useful historically, it doesn't tell us what extension strategies Blackberry should use with their 'problem child'. The smart phone market and indeed the tablet market is growing rapidly. Why didn't Blackberry maintain their position as market leader? What should their next move be?

Look here for more details:

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What happened to Nokia?!?

Is buget the new luxury?

Waitrose and Sainsbury's were once the only place 'middle class shoppers' would go to for their weekly shop, however, it seems that times have changed and Aldi is place to be seen.

What is causing the influx of Aston Martins and Range Rovers to this 'no frills', budget supermarket?

It seems that 'budget' is now increasingly becoming more of a mass market supermarket?

This article from the Daily Mail explains all, click HERE to find out!

Only in the UAE!

This article from Time Out Abu Dhabi (click HERE!) promotes a "New ‘high-end’ Starbucks opening in the UAE". This store is obviosuly aimed at a niche market with a high income. It brews rare coffee beans in a luxury environment.

Will we see more opening across the UAE?

Product Portfolio

Product Portfolio is the term used to describe the range of products a firm sells. It is important that a business monitors its product portfolio to ensure that their product range is effective and in demand. Products that have reached the end of their product life cycle need to be withdrawn if their are no suitable extension strategies.

Some products enter the decline stage more quickly than others.. Have you heard of Dasani? Coke's attempt to enter the mineral water market. Click HERE to read what happened when it tried to launch Dasani in the UK.

Extension Strategies

Extension strategies aim to prolong the maturity stage and not let sales decline. Making modifications to the 4P's will help to do this.

 

• Some ideas include:
• Modifying the product and adding new features
• Promoting the product
• Developing complementary products such as shower gel for a luxury frangrance range
• Finding new uses for the product
• Attempting to encourage uses - for example Special K cereal bars 

This graph looks familiar:

What extension strategies have Apple used?

How many of THESE Sony products have you used? Do you think Sony is as succesful as Apple in re-inventing itself?

Ultimately if a business does not extend its product life cycle and re-invent itself, it risks ending up like Polaroid who went bankrupt.





Source: Tutor2U and the graph was scanned from iCreate magazine - issue 99 The article also includes an interesting piece on why the ipod was so successful and discusses the contribution of advertising and design.
 

The Cereal Challenge...

Which team wins?

What were the strengths of their advertising campaign?

What were the weaknesses of the winning campaign?

Why did the losing team not do so well?

Post your name and comments below..

Niche vs Mass Markets

Today we looked at the idea of market segmentation, niche and mass markets. Market segmenation is defined as dividing the market up into small groups each with similar characteristics for example male, female, teenagers and pensioners. A niche market is a product or service targeted at a small segment of a large market, whereas mass marketing is aiming a product at all (or most of) the market.

The examples we looked at in class were the Welsh Scrabble and Vertu mobile phones; both these products are aimed at a small sections of a larger market ie. the board game and mobile phone markets. There are costs and benefits of aiming a product at only a very small market segment and firms must decide whether these costs outweigh the benefits.

Your task is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of operating in both a niche and mass market. You need to produce a PowerPoint presention with your findings. Your slides must have a maximum of 10 words on!! (Remember a picture says a thousand words!!)

Your presentation should include the following:

Why choose a niche market?
Why choose a mass market?
What are the benefits and problems of both?
How do you identify a niche market?

USE EXAMPLES!!!

I want to see lots of real life examples and you should also produce a handout with your information on! You will be presenting these next lesson!!