Production Life Cycle

Products, like people, have been viewed as having a life cycle. The products life cycle concept describes the stages a new product goes through in the marketplace: introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

The introduction stage of the product life cycle occurs when the product first enters the market, sales grow slowly, and profit is little.

The second stage of the product life cycle, growth, is characterized by rapid increases in sales, and it is in the stage that competitor appear.

The third stage, maturity, characterized by a leveling off of total industry sales revenue. Also, marginal competitors begin to leave the market. Most consumers who would by the product are either repeat purchases of the item or have tried and abandoned it.

The decline stage is the beginning of the end and occurs when sales and profits are steadily dropping. Frequently a product enters this stage not because of any wrong strategy of the company but because of environmental changes.

Can you give any example illustrating four stages of product life?

Ex. 7. Explain, in your own words, the following terms.

needs, wants, prospective customer, wholesaler, retailer, things of value, resale, buying decision, basic necessities, ultimate consumer, target market, controllable factors, tangible items, intangible items

Ex.8. Think of the verbs that are mostly used with following nouns.

exchange, needs, wants, services, goods, decision, product, benefit, increase, price.

Ex.9. Think of the nouns that are commonly used with the following verbs.

satisfy, exchange, achieve, occur, create, shape, discover, concentrate, market, obtain, charge.

Ex. 10. Fill in the gaps with the missing words.

Category, research, marketer, services, process, utility, exchange, profit, information, cycle, concept, marketing, advertising, goods, advertiser, extension, effectiveness

Marketing is the … companies use to make a … by satisfying their customers' needs for products. A more complicated … at the core of marketing is the perceived equal-value …, which implies three phases in the marketing-exchange …: finding out who customers are and what they want; interpreting this … for management in order to shape products; and devising strategies to inform customers about the product's … and to make it available to them. Advertising is concerned with the third step in the … process. It is one of several tools that … can use to inform, persuade, and remind groups of customers, or markets, about their … and …. Its … depends on the communication skill of the … person. It is also effective only to the extent that other marketing activities, such as market …, are correctly implemented.

There are three … of participants in the marketing process: customers, markets, and marketers. To reach customers and markets, … use the marketing communication process, which is an … of the human communication process.

Ex. 11. Give Russian equivalents to the following.

Encounter difficulties; to do international marketing; exploit a better business opportunity; with little room for growth; demand may shift to a newer product; to turn to other markets; to compete fairly in the domestic markets; protect themselves against; domestically produced goods; do not require intermediaries; the product manufactured locally; the advantages are twofold;

Ex. 12. Match the definitions with the words given below.

Market research, marketer, consumer, compete, consumerism, market price, market forces, target market, marketing mix, central markets, middleman, channel of distribution, substitutes, market development, market penetration, market segment, trademark

1. A social movement that seeks to increase the rights and powers of consumers. 2. Try to do or be better than someone else. 3. A price which is likely to be paid for something. 4. The controllable variables the company puts together to satisfy the target group. 5. Someone who works in or supports a particular market system. 6. A person who buys goods or services for their own use. 7. The collection and examination of information about things that people buy or might buy and their feelings about things they have bought. 8. The forces that decide price levels in an economy or trading systems whose activities are not influenced or limited by governments. 9. Convenient places where buyers and sellers can meet one-on-one to exchange goods and services. 10. Any series of firms (or individuals) from producer to final user or consumer. 11. Trying to increase sales by selling present products in new markets. 12. A fairly homogeneous (similar) group of customers to whom a company wishes to appeal. 13. A person who buys goods from a producer and makes a profit by selling them to a shop or a user. 14. Products that offer the buyer a choice. 15. Trying to increase sales of a firm’s present products in its present markets. 16. A legal term that includes only those words, symbols or marks that are legally registered. 17. A (relatively) homogeneous group of customers who will respond to a marketing mix in a similar way.

Ex. 13. Paraphrase the italicized words.

Most modern economies have advanced well beyond the five-family village, but the same ideas still apply. The main purpose of market intermediaries is to make exchange easier and allow greater time for production, consumption, and other activities - including leisure. Although it is tempting to conclude that more effective macro-marketing systems are the result of greater economic development, just the opposite is true. An effective macro-marketing system is necessary for economic development. Improved marketing is often the key to growth in less-developed nations. Without an effective macro-marketing system, many people in less-developed nations are not able to leave their subsistence way of life. They can’t produce for the market because there are no buyers. And there are no buyers because everyone else is producing for their own needs. As a result, distribution systems and intermediaries do not develop. Breaking this “ vicious circle of poverty” may require major changes in the inefficient micro- and macro-marketing systems that are typical in less-developed nations. At the least, more market-oriented middlemen are needed to move surplus output to markets - including foreign markets where there is more demand. You can see how this works, and why links between the macro-marketing systems of different countries are so important, by considering the differences in markets that are typical at different stages of economic development.

Ex. 14. Read the passage carefully. There is a word in each sentence which should not be there. Find it and cross it out.

By the 1950s consumers had a higher level of an income and a diversity of a product offerings available to them. Businesses began to realize that these sales and advertising could not sell a product if it was not that what the consumer wanted. Thus it had became important to first find out what he consumer wanted or needed and then to produce a product to satisfy that need or want. This attitude led up to the development of the marketing concept. Over the years of the marketing concept has evolved into a philosophy aimed at the pursuing organizational goals by identifying the their wants and their needs of the organization’s consumers (the organization’s) target markets) and to designing an integrated product/service offering on to fill those wants and needs.

Ex.15. Render the following into English.

1.Marketing – процесс выяснения и удовлетворения потребностей.

2.Buyer’s behaviour – процесс принятия покупателем решения о том, какой продукт покупать и у кого. Процесс состоит из пяти последовательных этапов: осознание проблемы, поиск информации, оценка информации, решение о покупке, оценка после покупки.

3.Market segmentation – процесс разделения рынка на субрынки, каждый из которых образован группой потребителей в чем-то похожих друг на друга, например, уровнем образования, возрастом.

4.Marketing mix – маркетинговый комплекс, состоящий из продукта, системы его распространения, рекламы и цены, который фирма использует для обслуживания потребителей на его целевом рынке.

5.Target market – особая группа потребителей, чьи потребности собирается удовлетворять предприятие.

6.Branding – использование дизайна, символа, имени или их комплекса для идентификации продукта, что дает производителю ряд преимуществ.

7.Consumer goods – товары, покупаемые для непосредственного удовлетворения потребностей покупателя.

8.Distribution channel – цепь фирм, которые участвуют в покупке и продаже товаров по мере их продвижения от производителя к пользователю.

9.Durable goods – товары, срок потребления которых превышает один год.

10.Positioning – процесс подгонки имиджа товара потребностям его целевого рынка.

11.Product life cycle – период, в течение которого продукт последовательно проходит через стадии зарождения, роста, зрелости и упадка.

12.Publicity – общественное мнение о компании или ее продукте.

13.Trademark – символ или наименование сорта, которые защищены законодательно.

Ex.16. Translate into English.

1.Маркетинг тесно связан с такими социальными науками, как экономика, социология, психология. 2. Маркетинг изучает людей в социальном контексте. 3. Маркетинг – это система научных и практических взглядов, направленных на изучение и управление рыночными отношениями. 4. Цель маркетинга – определить нужды т потребности своих будущих потребителей. 5. Четыре основных управляемых фактора маркетинга – это товары, цена, размещение и продвижение. 6. Потребитель не может отделить услугу от ее поставщика. 7. Внешние рынки могут предоставить больше возможностей для роста компании. 8. Одна из сложностей – это оценка политических и правовых условий в стране. 9. Каждая страна Европейского Союза имела свои торговые правила и положения. 10. Объединение устранило свыше 300 отдельных торговых барьеров. 11. Международный маркетинг – это маркетинг товаров и услуг за пределами страны, где находится организация. 12. Специалисты по международному маркетингу должны учитывать культурную среду каждого рынка.

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