After I wrote last week’s blogpost about product range management, I considered my findings for my own business. I realised that one service which has performed poorly to date is not a “dog”, it is a “?” which is still in an early stage of its development and requires nurturing. It has reminded me of the importance of understanding the lifecycle of your products.
Another technical topic which I’ll explain:
From inception, a product will go through stages, not dissimilar to a child. In its early stage of introduction, it is unreasonable to expect a product to deliver a return. A baby doesn’t resemble an adult and a seed doesn’t bear fruit yet. It needs to be nurtured. My own underperforming service hasn’t been encouraged to develop yet. It needs more time and attention to reach its maturity. In the mature phase, your product will be fully developed and will ideally satisfy your customers and deliver a profit to you. The surplus must be harvested and saved, like a pension, so that you’ll have a source of investment to draw upon when the product begins its decline, as it or its buyers inevitably will, at some point. If you have a product in decline, you will need to take action to keep your overall product range balanced. Perhaps it’s time to introduce a new product to replace the declining one? To illustrate this point, I suggest that you consider the endless iPhone upgrades which are brought out. Now that I’ve recognised that my service remains in its introduction phase, I can see the steps which are needed to nurture its growth to maturity and profitability.
If you would like to seek my advice regarding appropriate actions for your product range, please consider booking a slot at one of my winter marketing clinics 18th October (Rusthall), 15th November (Trinity Theatre). https://lisabeaumontmarketing.co.uk/marketing-clinic-form/ Prices currently include my time to guide you through the treatment which is prescribed; this will not be the case in 2019. Or drop me an email to [email protected] to find out about the FREE Marketing Clinic online option