Samsung Product Life Cycle Analysis

Chapter 8

7. Is a well-known brand valuable only to the owner of the brand?

A well-known brand it not only valuable to the owner of the brand. Some consumers may derive satisfaction by using the product, thus making the brand valuable to them. Also, wholesalers and retailers who handle the product may find it more profitable because of the demand for the product, thus making it valuable to them.

Chapter 9

2. Cite two examples of products that you think are currently in each of the product life-cycle stages. Consider services as well as physical goods. Products pass through four phases of life. The four phases of a products life cycle are:

1. Introduction stage -This is the stage where products are designed, developed and introduced to the

Growth stage - In this stage, sales and profits start to grow as company gains economic scale of production and marketing.

3. Maturity stage - in this stage the market for company’s product saturate and company reaches the threshold level of profit and sales.

4. Decline stage – in this stage the company’s market for products begin to shrink. Companies experience a decline in sales and profit.

One example of a company in each of the stages would be Samsung mobile.

1. Introduction stage – in this stage Samsung designs, develops and introduces a new series of their mobile phone.

2. Growth stage – in this stage Samsung incorporates and modifies their basic model with better features, thus launching the touch screen model phones.

3. Maturity stage – Samsung experiences saturation in demand and launches the smart phone series of mobile phones.

4. Decline stage – Samsung experiences a fall in demand for the first model series of phones in this stage. Samsung tries to revive and retain its market by launching a new series each time the end of the life cycle of a each model.

Another example would be the Ramada In, located in the town I currently reside in. The Ramada Inn offers hospitality services to

Pioneering promotion was required to inform the potential customers and to stimulate primary demand. Intermediaries did not exist so new channels of distribution had to be created. Prices were very high for a personal computer because the market was small and there was no economies of scale in production. Over time, as sales began to grow, competing firms entered the market with similar products. More variety was introduced as new firms tried to find ways to meet customer’s needs. Different channels of distribution was developed, such as, different types of retailers, mail orders, etc. Thus, distribution became more intense. General merchandise stores like Wal Mart and Sears entered the fray. Promotion focused more on the specific features of individual brands. Growth in the market of personal computers has slowed and the industries profits have begun to fall as the market becomes more and more competitive. The competition and dropping profit margins have driven many computer dealers out of business. At this stage, the successful new introductions in the market tend to niche products oriented toward specific segments, (e.g. lightweight laptop computers, engineering workstations specially designed for high speed computations, tablet computers that recognize handwriting, etc.) Price has dropped dramatically, especially in