In the discussion forum, you are expected to participate often and engage in deep levels of discourse. Please post your initial response as early as possible and continue to participate throughout the unit. You are required to post an initial response to the question/issue presented in the Forum and then respond to at least 3 of your classmates' initial posts.You should also respond to anyone who has responded to you.

The product life cycle helps to inform decisions made by marketing managers. Examine two products that you are familiar with, one that is in the early stages of the product life cycle and one in the mature stage.

How is the marketing different for the two products?

What improvements to the marketing strategy would you recommend for each if you were the marketing manager?

Your Discussion should be a minimum of 250 words in length and not more than 750 words. Please include a word count.You should include at least three different valid sources.

Use APA citations and referencesfor the textbook add the page number.

Please Log in at leastthreedifferent times a weekwhile reading and participate in forums as assigned in the module

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solution

Once products are launched in the market, they go through the different life cycle stages - introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Understanding the stages of products help organizations adjust their marketing strategies to stay longer in the market Milind & Devendra (2013). To illustrate how marketing differs in different stages of PLC, I pick "Harar' and "Raya" beers produced by one of the oldest breweries, Harar Brewery, and Raya Brewery Share Company, respectively.

Harar Brewery produces Harar Beer, a 5% alcohol, as well as Hakim Stout, a 5.8% alcohol. The brewery also makes Harar Sofi, a non-alcoholic beverage ("Harar brewery," 2021). This helps it to sell its product based on the preference of the customer. Some people prefer a low alcohol content and vice versa. Harar markets its non-alcoholic beverage mainly to Ethiopian protestant Christians and the Muslim population. Unlike Harar, Raya is limited to only one beer with 5% alcohol (Raya Brewery Share Company, 2014).

Harar is among the front runners in establishing a good relationship with restaurants and bars. Dealing with them, Harar sponsors them to produce big outdoor signs of the client with Harar's beer image on it. However, this is not peculiar to Harar; other bigger breweries also do that. Other promotion strategies include TV commercials for non-alcoholic beverages, ads, sponsoring various events, sponsorship of new releases of music albums and movies.

The marketing activities of Raya beer is currently focused on lower pricing to penetrate the market. Unlike the average price of the old beers, including Harar, which is around 25Birr (0.6 USD) per bottle (330ml), Raya's price for a similar size of beer is 18Birr (0.41 USD). This is helping Raya to easily enter to the market. This is a typical strategy in the early stage of the products life cycle. According to Neetu (2013), for new entrants, if there are already established firms in the market, the market entry price may be low to ease the entry into the market.

Unfortunately, because Raya is yet to launch a non-alcoholic drink, it has no the privilege of TV commercials for it is illegal to advertise alcoholic drinks on TV.

What I would like to recommend for Harar from a marketing perspective is product modification. Product modification involves improving quality, features, or style. Feature improvement adds size, weight, materials, supplements, and accessories that expand the product's performance, versatility, safety, or convenience (Kotler & Keller, 2016). Accordingly, Harar could consider marketing its beers in a bundle; that is, 4 to 6 bottles of beer in a box. In my opinion, this would have been a huge advantage if they have done that during the COVID 19 restrictions period where restaurants and bars were closed. Creating the opportunity for people to take and go would have generated more income. I also believe that this will be helpful to be accessible to people who don't like to be served in restaurants and bars.

Raya is expected to do more in terms of marketing. Not only because it is newly entering, but also the market is competitive. Raya should consider internet campaigns and promotional programs such as coupons besides the lower price. In addition, to reach the unreached non-alcoholic beverage consumers and also to get the chance to commercialize their name on TV, I highly recommend considering the production of a non-alcoholic drink as soon as possible.

Finally, a marketing strategy that can be used by both is expanding their accessibility through offering smaller bundles of beers in a carton box through retail shops. Traditionally, beer is distributed to restaurants and bars by a plastic crate holding 25 bottles. The small retail shops are not selling beer in Ethiopia mainly because they are reluctant to buy the crates. They may also consider lending or giving the crates for free to retailers.

References List

Milind, K., & Devendra, S. V. (2013). International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology: Product Life Cycle And Marketing Management Strategies, 2/4, 2278-0181

Harar brewery. (2021, March 30). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harar_Brewery

Raya Brewery Share Company. (2014): Retrieved July 11, 2021 from: https://www.internationalbeveragenetwork.com/55004/Raya-brewery-Share-Company

Neetu, S. (2013). International Journal of Marketing, Financial Services & Management Research: Marketing Strategy on Different Stages PLC and Its Marketing Implications on FMCG Products, 2/3, 2277- 3622

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016, 15th ed). Marketing management. Pearson India Education Services Pvt. Ltd. India

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In reply to Mintesnot Forsido

Re: Marketing Strategies and PLC

by Soyemi Aliu - Monday, 12 July 2021, 2:23 PM

Hi Forsido,

Thanks for your post, in fact very similar to my chosen products, I feel from your last 2 paragraphs on the marketing strategies adopted to market the two products, Harar falls into the categories of products under the maturity stage while Raya is in the introduction or early stages.

According to S. Jaideep, the following are Marketing Strategies for products under early stages and Maturity stages:

Strategies for marketing products at the introduction or early stage are:

1. Rapid Skimming Strategy

2. Slow Skimming Strategy

3. Rapid Penetration

4. Slow Penetration

Strategies for marketing product at Maturity stage

Such as 'To do nothing', Market Modification, Product Modification, Marketing Mix Modification.

Reference:

S. Jaideep, (n.d). Marketing Strategy- stage of the product life cycle.

https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/marketing-strategies-stages-of-product-life-cycle/48630

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