This document discusses strategies for keeping products moving through their product life cycle. It notes that while some products only have one life, others can have extended lifecycles through strategic adaptations. During a product's life cycle, marketing and promotions must adapt to the stage of maturity. Constant innovation is essential for product survival to avoid forcing early retirement. Relatively small changes to design, packaging or features can help a product stay relevant. Products reach the end of their lifecycle in different ways, such as lack of sales, but with the right strategy even mature products can be renewed or given new life to avoid going extinct. The key message is that products are not designed to sit on shelves, so companies must find ways to keep them moving

1. MOVING YOUR PRODUCT
Ndela Sichizya
I believe many of you reading this article have undertaken a study in marketing, business or general
commerce that at least exposed you to the elementary principals of a product life cycle commonly
knownas the PLC. I will therefore notlabourtoelucidate thattheory.
The undertaking of any business often starts with a market research to ascertain the viability of the
idea which subsequently develops into a fully fledged business operation. This research process is
and can at times be as long and slow as the life of a bamboo tree before it springs out of the ground
and take a high gear growth rate. It is undoubtedly essential to do a thorough research and
meticulousproductdevelopmentbecause thisisthe foundationof the business.
The PLC of many products is often different from the life cycle of living things. This is because many
products can have many lives, thanks to the strategies available and applicable during the PLC. Some
products like human beings only have one life, while others have very long lives, others extended
life cycles and still many others take the leap frog life cycle. All an investor or entrepreneur wants is
product life long enough to sustain the business and yield desired profits. This means your product
has to be movingfromthe shelf because itwasn’tdesignedtobe there.
Product design& Marketing
During a product’s life, companies will need to adapt their marketing and promotional activity
depending on which stage of the cycle the product is passing through. As the market develops and
matures, the consumers attitude to the product will change. So the marketing and promotional
activity that launches a new product in the Introduction Stage, will need to be very different from
the campaignsthat will be designedtoprotectmarketshare duringthe MaturityStage.
Some degree of constant innovation is essential for survival, otherwise you will be forcing your
product into early retirement. It often doesn’t take much to stay relevant to your market, if you keep
an evolvingordynamicbusinessstrategy.Yourproductisnotmeantfor the shelf
 Relativelysmall cosmeticmodificationstothe productand/or packaging
 Addinguseful butsmall features
 Complete re-designof the existingproduct

2. MOVING YOUR PRODUCT
The picture above isa typical exampleof aproduct thathas reachedmaturityandis hard to sell.For
example ata prime spotwith7 large billboards,there are only2paidfor adverts.Tostart moving
thisproduct,a newand differentstrategycan be considered because even aproductat maturitycan
be givenan extensionorindeedatotallynew leaselife andsave itfromgoingintoextinction.
The picture above isan example of amovingproductthoughstock outs couldbe a goodproblem, it
isat manytimesa consequence of baddistributionof the productandcertainlydoesputquestions
on the company’ssalesmanagement strategy.

3. MOVING YOUR PRODUCT
Whenyousee a signlike thisone above,itmeansthe companywants tomove theirstockto pave
wayfor newstock, newversion/ variationorcompletely windup the business.The reasonsare
manyand oftendone toachieve a particularbusinesspurposebutnotlimitedtothe above
mentioned reasons.Otherreasonswouldbe torecoupthe investmentwholeorpart and not
necessarilyyieldaprofit.
Againstthe differentoddsintrinsictoyourindustry ,your productcan move for as longas products
similartoyours are still beingconsumed. You can move yourproductand you mustbecause it
wasn’tdesignedforthe shelf.
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NdelaSichizya is the CouncilPublicity Secretary for ZIMand Marketing Manager- DStv