A bit about product management
Today, I continued my Marketing study with an overview of Product Management. When considering a product, a marketer will break the product down into its attributes. These are characteristics by which products are identified or differentiated. An attribute might be tangible or intangible; it might be a feature, a functionality, or a use. It might be expected or superfluous. The marketer identifies and measures these attributes to make choices about how to advertise the product, keeping in mind that the customer isn’t actually buying the attributes, but the benefits that come from them.
Marketers classify products into different types, such as convenience products, staple products, impulse products, emergency products, and shopping products. They make further product distinctions, like whether a product is durable or not, or whether it is a specialty product. These attributes are taken into consideration when deciding how to market the product. For instance, an impulse product is purchased frequently and is affordable; the consumer isn’t going to quibble over the decision to buy and will more readily accept brand substitutes. Therefore, these are low-involvement purchases that should be positioned conveniently and prominently, and always be kept in stock.
The marketer might then categorize the product further by placing it in a product class. This class is a group of products that are generally considered to be valid substitutes for one another. It might be a narrow or broad class depending on how substitutable the products are for each other. An even smaller segment the product might be categorized in is called the product form, which refers to even more granular distinctions within a class.
Once these distinctions have been made, the marketer can identify the ideal "curve" of the product life cycle. There are various stages that happen in a successful product's life cycle, and those stages can look slightly different depending on the class and attributes of the product.
The product life cycle starts in the development stage. At this point, no sales have been made. The company’s investment is high, and they are doing final development and testing on the product. The marketer is conducting preliminary market research at this stage to discover what the customer needs. There may be prototypes being made, providing further opportunities for incremental market research. The company is gaining feedback to help determine what the final product will be like and when they are ready to progress into the introduction stage.
In the introduction stage, buyers aren’t even aware of the product yet, so this is where marketing really gets to start shining. The marketer is focused on increasing brand awareness, and the company is working to get consumers to try the product. They might do this through sampling or giveaways. This will continue until sales and profits rise and they enter the growth phase.
It is at this point that you can expect competitors to notice potential profits and begin entering the market. The marketing strategy around the product will then shift to focus on differentiation and highlighting its value compared to other products. If the product continues on its trajectory, it will move into the maturity stage, where marketing efforts will center on maintaining market share and reminding customers about the product. Finally, as with all cyclical things, the product will enter a period of decline.
