For this new product, assume the role of marketing manager. State the four stages of a product life cycle. Indicate the typical changes in the marketing mix variables that occur and change over this period. Assume this product category works through the four stages with additional competition. Be specific for this product. Indicate your assumptions where necessary. Indicate any changes in competition and target for each stage. For simplicity, use terminology that you have learned in the course. Use the attached template and use point form.

Createquip Inc. manufactures a broad range of electric equipment for industrial buyers. Its sales and profits have stopped growing in recent years and the firms top executives are anxious to diversify into the consumer products market. However, they do not want to enter a new market with just another me too product. Instead, they hope to discover a real breakthrough opportunity an unsatisfied market with large profit potential.

For several years, Createquips marketing research and product planning departments have been working together in search of an innovative new product for the firms first entry into the consumer market. Now, the top executives believe that they have found such a product. The new product is a freeze-dry appliance for food. The unit makes it easy for consumers to make instant versions of just about any feed just a freeze-dried coffee makes great instant coffee. The

unit can process almost any type of food (ranging from eggs and hamburgers to oatmeal, rice and fruits) that is available at any supermarket. It has the capacity to cook up to 1 KG batches of a food product and convert it to freeze-dried pellets. Whenever the consumer is ready, the freeze-dried pellets can be put in a microwave oven with water and heated to product fresh-tasting soups, sauces, gravies, drinks and hundreds of other items that are otherwise time consuming to cook in small quantities. With the unit, a gourmet cook would be able to make fancy sauces on an impulse, an office worker could create a favourite type of homemade soup t take to work without the mess, and busy singles could keep pellets ready for when there is no time to go to the store or cook something from scratch. At first the new product idea seemed strange perhaps even hard to believe but in tests with consumers it has generated a very favourable response. Moreover, the freeze-dry unit is inexpensive and easy to operate, and it is expected to retail for about $100.

Createquips marketing manager believes the new product will appeal to convenience-oriented families and health- conscious people who want to make their own instant foods but with more nutritious ingredients and with out preservatives typically found in packages in the store. The marketing manager feels the product has almost unlimited potential citing the rapid growth of prepared and instant foods and the wide use of microwave ovens. Further, the firms research and development staff are sure that it will take any potential competitors at least two years to introduce a similar product.

The electric freeze-dry unit is really a revolutionary new concept and will probably require a major promotion effort to gain consumer acceptance. Moreover, Createquip has no established channels of distribution in the consumer product market and intermediaries may be reluctant to handle an unproven product that lacks a well known brand name. Also, the firm is not sure what pricing policies to adopt, because it has no previous experience in the consumer products market.

To further complicate the strategic planning efforts, Createquips marketing manager recognizes that the marketing strategy will need to be modified over time as the new product passes through various stages in the life cycle. So that the firm will be in a position to adjust quickly to changing market conditions, the president has asked the marketing manager for an overview of future marketing strategies for the freeze-dry unit as well as the beginning strategy.