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DefinitionThe maturity stage of the product life cycle comes after growth, in the concept of the product life cycle. The concept implies that a product, like a living being, progresses through various stages of life. These stages include development, active growth, maturity, and decline. Marketers can use the concept to define the life cycle stage of their product and apply the most efficient marketing strategies for the given stage. By the time a product has reached maturity it has established brand awareness, a chain of distributors, and stable sales. At the same time, competition will have entered the market. The challenges of the maturity stageKeeping sales volumes upDuring the growth stage, sales increased at a constant rate. But by maturity, the market is usually saturated, and the sales stabilize or plateau. They may even start to drop off. For the company keeping sales volumes up is the primary challenge driving all marketing decisions. Maintaining the market shareAs the competition is high, it has become harder to maintain market share. Many manufacturers offer the same product, often, at lower prices. This is when price wars usually begin. Retaining the profitThe product usually makes the most profit during the maturity stage. But it’s also the point at which the sales stop increasing. Marketing campaigns no longer result in any meaningful increase in revenue and they’re often just a waste of money. Marketing ImplicationsMarketing emphasisThe main goal is to prolong the maturity stage, successfully getting ahead of the competition and generating profits. At this stage, the manufacturer can benefit from high sales volumes and produce at lower costs due to economies of scale. During the growth stage, the business would have discovered more efficient, cost effective production methods, helping it to stay competitive and prolong the maturity stage. Through applying the right strategies, it’s possible to retain and even increase the market share during maturity. So which strategies are right? Let's look at Marketing Mix strategy during maturity stage in terms of 4p’s. Product strategyMost manufacturers add new features, at this stage, to diversify the product. They may make changes based on research in the existing audience or among non-users, to find out what would make the product more attractive for them. It’s still important to maintain consistent product quality and maintain the brand’s reputation. Pricing strategyThe prices should match or beat those of the competition. Usually, at the maturity stage, the prices are lower than they were in the previous life cycle. The means of competing on price should be built into the initial pricing strategy. Promotional strategyCampaigns should aim at expanding the customer base. Where a company expands to other countries, they should create localized content. At this stage promotions could target new segments, for example, younger customers or new geographic regions. Distribution strategyThe brand has to maintain distribution channels. Many companies choose to expand to new markets. They must then establish distribution channels in the new locations. While in the growth stage, the distributors would have advocated the company’s products, now they need only sell. The maturity stage is characterized by a peak in sales and a market that is almost saturated.Marketing strategies include diversifying the product, lowering prices, and communicating to a broader audience the benefits of the given brand. Groove’s customer service platform almost died in the introductory stage because they forgot to listen to their customers. They drew people in with a product they assumed would be a hit and pushed forward without taking in customer feedback. The result? People had a terrible experience using their product. After turning their attention toward feedback and testing, letting the voice of their customers fuel their content strategy and product development, they took off. Three years later, they were a $5 million business. Not revisiting your marketing objectives in the growth phase of your product lifecycle is the death knell of many startups. In this article, you’ll learn how to develop a marketing strategy for the growth stage. We’ll also share how to achieve marketing goals at this stage, using your existing customers and experimentation to increase sales and loyalty. What is the growth stage of the product life cycle (and why is it important)?The growth stage is the period of the product life cycle with the sharpest increase in sales thanks to a boost in-market presence. It’s the second of the four product life cycle stages:
After getting your product to market and working to gain traction (with new insights but little in the way of financial reward), the growth stage accelerates your ascent. Your audience is aware of and has accepted your product. Generating interest and capturing demand this way comes with several benefits.
Increased demand brings challengers looking to benefit from the developing market. It also means you have to contend with no longer being the “new” product and the hype boost that can bring. For this reason, the growth stage is the best time to innovate: first by introducing new product features or product lines to diminish competitors attempting to copy, then by capitalizing on your standing to position your product as the best choice. How to identify if you’re moving from the introduction stage to the growth stageIn the introduction phase, the focus is on creating product awareness to motivate your target market to consider you when making a buying decision. The introductory stage is rarely profitable because of high distribution and promotion expenses but low sales. You’re expending a lot of resources trying to build awareness and find a foothold in the market, so your customers continue purchasing and spreading the word. This is why fads tend to rise and fall without ever making it out of the introductory phase: They’ve failed to satisfy a lasting need for their users. Because you’re spending a lot without reaping financial rewards, keep the introduction stage as short as possible. Your marketing goal in the introduction stage is to get out of the introduction stage. When sales increase and your marketing objectives shift towards creating a preference for your brand over the competition, you’re heading toward the growth stage of product lifecycle marketing. The role of marketing in the growth stageYou’ve achieved a degree of awareness, and people are buying your product. Now, you have to get creative, so you’re top of mind as the choice in the market continues to build. As Harvard Business School professor, Theodore Levitt, notes:
Your market goals now are to increase market share and create brand preference. Luckily, there are many ways to do this (as we’ll see below). To establish why your brand is better than the rest, champion your voice of customer. Use the feedback you’ve gained in the introductory phase to position the messaging of your product. Your early customers will reveal the specific benefits of your product in a way that resonates with future buyers’ needs and challenges. You can also use this phase to drive adoption and consumption post-sale. Once your customers are on board, you can reward their loyalty to create brand advocates that help grow sales through word-of-mouth. Here’s how to do exactly that, with examples of businesses that get it right. Develop a marketing strategy that champions the voice of the customerTo drive growth, build a company that connects with customers beyond surface-level attributes like price or features. The more customers identify with your brand, the more they’ll hesitate to jump ship. They’re also more likely to return and promote your business. Develop your growth marketing strategy with these concepts in mind. Let customer and competitor research guide youAt launch, marketing is based on customer behavior related to the problem your product solves. In the growth phase, you have the advantage of early adopters and data to tailor marketing (and product development) strategies based on customer experiences. Use quantitative research to glean standardized facts related to users’ experience with your website, brand, or product features. Wise, for example, found that 67% of its customers join through recommendations. The better the experience, the more they recommend the product to others: Wise then used Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys to determine if users would recommend it to friends. They found that the higher the NPS of a customer, the more recommendations they make. Using the results of this quantitative research, Wise works on creating positive experiences to keep scores high:
The result? Wise (formerly TransferWise) has the strongest advocates in YouGov’s BrandIndex. Combine quantitative research with qualitative research by:
Qualitative research gives you the why behind the what. For example, if a user wouldn’t recommend you, ask them what specifically about your product, brand, or experience put them off. Then use this feedback to improve. Use your findings to fine-tune customer personas and make data-driven UX decisions. Seek user input on new features and updates to help you build a more user-centric product. It will also make customers feel valued and appreciated, both of which are key to winning loyalty. How do your brand and product compare to the competition? Look outwards, carrying out a competitor analysis by:
This deep dive will help you establish how your messaging stacks up against your rivals and which aspects of your brand and product will help you stand out. Control the narrative with a compelling value propositionYour value proposition is the promise of the value you deliver. It tells people why they should choose you. An effective value proposition must be relevant to the problem or situation your target audience experiences, and it must be benefit-led. It should also act as a differentiation tool. There are no set ingredients for a value proposition, but it should typically include the following.
Take Hotjar’s homepage: Its headline immediately communicates the value of the product:
The supporting copy illustrates the problem Hotjar is solving:
Followed by an explanation of what the product is:
An introductory video reinforces the message. It uses the PAS formula to create an emotional connection:
Finally, Hotjar adds in some value proposition “boosters,” small value-adds that instill confidence in the reader:
As a complete package, it ticks the boxes for a good value proposition:
Creating a unique value proposition (UVP)A compelling UVP is born out of brainstorming and experimentation. Come up with several options and stress test each of them. Follow the steps conversion copywriter Momoko Price recommends in her product messaging course: 1. List your product’s key features; 2. Pinpoint those that are unique; 3. List customer pain points for each feature; 4. Define desirable outcomes for each pain; 5. Score pains or outcomes by severity and frequency; 6. Edit top-scored pain outcomes into UVPs; and 7. Score the UVPs (and go with the best ones). Test your UVP using:
Reward users with tailored marketing experiences to create brand advocatesMultiple case studies have shown that the fastest route to growth is through happy customers. For example:
Happy customers have an emotional connection to your brand, which results in a 306% higher lifetime value. They also recommend you at a much higher rate than satisfied customers (75% vs. 45%). Create brand advocates by connecting with customers and rewarding loyalty using the following methods. There are two ways to break down the barrier between customer and company on social media. Customer service When a user reaches out to you on social media, the majority expect a same-day response. Meeting that expectation has been shown to increase loyalty. It also gives you a competitive advantage. Around 44% of consumers say social media customer service distinguishes a brand from its peers. Set up social listening tools to monitor brand mentions and respond to customer questions and comments efficiently. If you’re active on several channels, consider merging comms into a single platform to maintain customer satisfaction with fast, consistent responses. For example, Lemonade delivers timely, personalized interaction across Instagram: Twitter: And Facebook: This personal touch keeps satisfaction high among users. It also makes a good impression on followers yet to try the insurance company. By engaging on social media, followers will make the link that Lemonade cares about its users. Where you’re unable to engage promptly in person, keep response rates high by using a chatbot to answer frequently asked questions and direct customers to appropriate support channels. Fandango’s Facebook Messenger Bot helps people watch movie trailers and find local theaters: Its bot tackles common queries, freeing up the social media team to deal with more complex or pressing issues. Community building You can build a social media community anywhere people interact online. It can take many forms:
Studies show that building a social media community can increase brand trust. It’s a great way to glean insights from your audience while making them feel valued. Survey your customers to establish their interests and problems. Ask what types of content they like to consume and who they like to connect with. Build your community around these like-minded people. Let persona-driven insights guide the content you produce. Most importantly, actively participate. Around 70% of customers feel more connected to brands with CEOs who are active on social media. And 72% feel the same when employees share brand information. Your team members are your earliest brand advocates; empower them to start and engage in conversations. Personalize the customer experienceYou don’t have to have Netflix’s personalization algorithm to show customers relevant content. There are plenty of ways to deliver a thoughtful, tailored experience. For existing customers, use personalization to show that you know them. Leverage data to:
Snapchat uses geofilters: Starbucks pushes notification discounts (to users with this feature enabled): Grammarly sends personalized reports that show how users improved their writing: These companies use the data they hold to personalize the user experience. And with good reason. Around 83% of consumers surveyed are willing to share their data to create a more personalized experience. Additionally, more consumers are annoyed by a lack of personalization when engaging with a company. According to Accenture, 41% of consumers switched companies because of a lack of personalization and trust. Reaching your customers with creatively tailored content is becoming an increasingly critical tactic to deploy. There is a multitude of software options you can use to help you do this:
Once you’ve found the right tool, get started with personalization using this three-step process. 1. Choose your variables: These could be your top market segments and keywords, location, visitor frequency, etc. This will largely depend on what data you hold on your customers. 2. Configure rules and create segmented content: Enter your variables into your chosen personalization software and configure your rules. What will happen if a customer that meets your criteria takes the chosen action? (e.g., when a customer from the U.K. visits your website, ask them if they’d like to see prices in GBP) 3. Launch your personalized content: Run it for a period and analyze results based on performance. Continue optimizing your campaign until you’ve achieved the desired results. Drive loyalty with incentivesMuch like personalization, incentives are a way to show customers you care. While personalized content is based around customer satisfaction (i.e. creating positive sentiment), incentives are powerful motivators for repetition and brand advocacy. Use incentives to optimize customer retention and advocacy through gamification. Postcron encourages repeated actions by letting users earn and stack rewards: Every time a customer refers a friend, they get a free month of Postcron Premium. New customers also get a free month. The more they add, the more free use of the premium plan they get. You can structure gamification rewards around:
Unearth which one is right for your users in your user research and testing. In every case, they must add value to the customer experience and be simple to execute. If people have to jump through hoops, your program will likely fall flat. Similarly, it can’t be a fad or used to paper over the cracks of a poor product or customer experience. Drive growth with experimentationWith competitors offering the same solution and marketing to the same audience, you need to do one of two things: 1. Come up with innovative ways to sell your product; or 2. Do what the competition is doing better than they’re doing it (e.g., through better customer experiences). Design growth marketing experiments (i.e. growth hacking) to tackle these tasks. Growth hacking is built on experimentation and failing fast. Come up with new ways to grow your brand and let the data inform decisions. If a strategy doesn’t show growth, drop it. If it does, run with it. For example, when ConvertKit began to grow its user base by cold-emailing bloggers, it doubled down on the tactic and scaled it up to include an affiliate program and webinars. The result? Revenue grew by 637%. On the back of that tactic, ConvertKit now drives $1 million in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MMR). They’re also testing evangelists, listing it as one of the components that make up their culture. Image sourceTo get started with growth, choose a goal and define a series of experiments to help you achieve it. Run A/B and multivariate tests to determine the success of experiments while gathering insights along the way. According to WeTheFuture.org founder John McBride, your experiments should go three layers deep: 1. Learn whether the strategy (e.g., email campaign, push notification, or landing page) affects conversions; 2. Figure out the right message, offer, or campaign, and then; 3. Tailor the message to individual customers. John says that the third layer is the most powerful:
Use your qualitative user research and competitive analysis to understand what customers want and what they’re not getting elsewhere. Brainstorm ideas to engage them and experiment to find the best formula for growth. ConclusionThe growth stage is your chance to capitalize on the early promise of your product so that when the market reaches saturation, you’ve already positioned yourself as the go-to brand. The key to growth lies with your customers, so make the most of early adopters. Analyze their behavior and learn how they think and feel about your product. Use this data to shape your messaging and fuel growth marketing experiments. Deliver positive experiences at every touchpoint, and customers will become your competitive advantage, setting you up for a profitable maturity phase and staving off decline until the time is right. Learn how to design and execute growth stage experiments in CXL’s Growth Marketing Minidegree. What is the marketing objective for the maturity stage of the product life cycle?The marketing objective in the maturity stage is to maintain brand loyalty with reminder orientation. The company built its market share in the growth stage, now it is the time to maintain and hold the market share.
What is the promotional objective of the maturity stage of the product life cycle multiple choice inform persuade compare remind phase?Reminding buyers of the product's existence is the primary promotional objective in the maturity stage of the product life cycle.
What is the maturity stage of the product life cycle?Maturity
The maturity stage is when the sales begin to level off from the rapid growth period. At this point, companies begin to reduce their prices so they can stay competitive amongst growing competition.
What is the promotional objective for a product in the growth stage of the product life cycle and what are two promotional activities brands should use?The primary promotional objective of the growth stage is to persuade the consumer to buy the product. Advertising is used to communicate brand differences, and personal selling is used to solidify the channel of distribution. -Maturity stage. In the maturity stage the need is to maintain existing buyers.
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