Linking promotional activity to the product life cycle Products Essay

BIC was founded in 1950 by Marcel Bich with the introduction of the first high quality ballpoint publish at an affordable price. In 1975 BIC launched the first one-piece fry and conk a market leader within that sector too. In the early days, BIC concentrated on a warmness cuckold of convergences which mainly include BIC cristal and Orange Ball Pen and the Classic Shaver. In the nineties the company realised it motivationed to develop its w ar range to take changing consumer invites and to compete with refreshed competitors entering the writing and shaver categories. BIC has therefore set about re-shaping itself. It has looked to add value to its merchandises (e.g. by abject from a single firebrand to a twin firebrand, then to a triple blade razor) and to develop a range of tender merchandises. BICs introduction of the Classic one-piece shaver, re spoted as BIC 1, illustrates this process.The re-branding was intended to enhance the brands simplicity whilst mollif y maintaining the highly recognisable, orange packaging. BIC has farther compound this re-branding by launching BIC 2, which satisfies consumers looking for a functional twin blade at an affordable price. Through the launch of BIC 1 & BIC 2, BIC has created a branding synergy. In the twin blade sector, BIC has launched premium products such as Comfort Twin and Twin Lady. These products level consumers demanding intensify features and benefits while still offering excellent value for money. In 2003, BIC launched its first triple blade shaver for men BIC Comfort 3 and one year afterwards BIC Soleil Lady for women. Both of these products offer greater innovation and technologically enhanced features and benefits at riveive prices. The Boston ground substance and BIC productsMulti-product businesses the like BIC argon aw be of how products in their entire portfolio contribute to the overall growth of the business. Established productive lines make a vital contribution that e nables a company to arrange in the development and promotion of brisk lines.The Boston Consulting Group veritable The Boston box or BCG matrix. This relates closely to product behavior motorcycles and identifies quad classes of products in an organisations portfolio. Problem children These ar tonicly-launched products. This name is catch because many products fail to move beyond this phase. Such products be similarly referred to as Question Marks or Wild-cats. In order to grow, they involve large measures of investment and promotional resist. Wise firms monitor each products progress and recognise whether or non on-going support is justified. Stars These are products that have success sufficienty reached the growth stage in the life cycle. Although they need on-going promotional support, they are already providing high cash returns.They present genuine future prospects. Cash cows These products have reached the maturity stage and are now yielders. They have a high market share in markets that are no biger speedily expanding. However, they provide need on-going trade support and will need freshening up from time to time. Dogs These are products in decline. These have a low market share in a low-growing or declining market. Because they generate a negative cash flow, they will usually be disposed of. The Boston matrix can be employ to BIC productsThe ten Ball Pen and Classic Shaver are everyday and well ceremonious products with very high unit sales. BIC produces them on a large scale. These cash cows provide excellent cash wampum for the company. The exaltation Grip and whirl Gel Pens, and Twin Lady shavers are flairs with well-established growth patterns. For example, the Twin Lady filled the gap in the market for shavers for women. Problem Children that have recently entered their respective markets include Cristal influence and Cristal Pocket Scents in the pen market, and Comfort 3 and Soleil in the shavers market. Curre ntly BIC is investing in these products. Over the next two or three years the company will decide whether these products have succeeded (moved into the star category) and warrant continued support. Products such as Soleil (a shaver for women) are rapidly moving into the star category. Of course, some products fail to take off sufficiently and/or go into decline. The Tough Beard shaver has not warranted further development and BIC has taken it out of production. Developing the product rangeThe Cristal range of pens demonstrates how to inject new life into a product range BICs Cristal Ball pen was launched in 1951. It has over 30% market share and is the UKs best-selling ball pen. In 1964 BIC launched BIC Orange. This is a fine-point version of the Cristal pen, easily recognised by its orange barrel. In the 1990s, as the Cristal and Orange Ball pens became more mature and encountered rocky competition from lower priced brands, BIC invested in developing the Cristal range to attra ct new users and to differentiate itself from the competition. This led to the launch of a range of new productsCristal Grip, for more comfortCristal Colours, for fashionable coloursCristal Pocket, for a more convenient sizeCristal Pockets Scents, for fun and soft inksCristal Gel, for smoother writing.By continually adding to the range, BIC manages to inject new life into the product life cycle of the overall range. BIC now offers a full range of Cristal pens using both ball point and gelatine ink technology. The ranges development has also helped to support the enhancements of the core brand, and each year sales of Cristal pens increase.The product life cycle and promotional military actionBIC analyses its products, and promotes and supports these in line with their stage in the product life cycle. For example, BIC Cristal and the Classic shaver have a long life cycle and although they have had technological improvements over the years and are produced using more advanced manufa cturing techniques, the style and design of these products have not changed. They are still recognisable worldwide. Initially, when these products were launched, promotional activity would have think on generating awareness and encouraging consumers to trial the products. Now that these products have sire well established icons, the promotional emphasis is on rewarding liege customers who continue to buy these products.The illustration shows the way in which promotional activity is tailored to stages in the product life cycle. When BIC launched the Comfort 3 razor, it chose Martin Johnson to constitute the brand. BIC invested heavily in outdoor media such as billboards and conducted national push advertising to raise awareness. With Cristal Gel, BIC carried out a large amount of below the line activity. To build awareness of the new product, BIC supplied existing Cristal Ball pen users with Cristal Gel samples through special promotional packs and other sampling campaigns t o office users. This was supported by advertising and immediately marketing. During a products growth period, BIC continues to use market interrogation data to help it better apprehend market developments and consumer requirements.It also continues to support the product so that more and more consumers try it out and are converted into regular users. At this stage, advertising and special offers encourage new users to try the product. As a product moves towards maturity, BICs marketing experts need to commit ways of injecting new life into it. They must also identify new product developments that can meet similar consumer needs. This explains why, for example, BIC has developed extensions to the Cristal range. Once a product has saturated a market, sales will stagnate. However, it is important to continue to support cash cows because they play a vital role in injecting profits that sustain new product development. Once a product has moved into decline, a company like BIC will lo ok to replace it with new products that meet existing and evolving consumer needs. For example, the razor Tough Beard was taken out of the product portfolio because other new BIC razors were better able to meet the needs of customers with tough beards ConclusionBusinesses that understand the Boston Box and product life cycles are able to target appropriate promotional activities to support the various products in their portfolio. Well established products such as BIC Cristal and Classic shaver are the cash cows that enable BIC to thrive by developing its stars and some of its brain marks in line with market needs. BIC is an innovative organisation that uses its proficient and marketing expertise to supply consumers with the products they want and need.Questions1. Using the Barksdale and Harris model that combines the BCG matrix and the product life cycle, consider how useful this mogul be to BIC when analysing their product portfolios. 2. Consider the pop off of Booz, Allen and Hamilton Consultants in relation to the decay curve of new product ideas, and suggest how this might be applied by BIC when bringing new product ideas to the market place. 3. The GE/McKinsey matrix has nine boxes as opposed to the BCG matrix that has four boxes. Consider how it might or might not have been better for BIC to apply the GE/McKinsey matrix on the basis that it might be more accurate? 4. Consider the work of Everett Rogers in relation to product adopter categories. Using his idea, how might BIC aline their promotional strategy in relation to targeting different adopter categories?