All products go through a natural lifecycle, and so should your promotional mix.
Introductory Stage: A product first hits the market.
Growth Stage: A product is making money and expanding its market share.
Maturity Stage: Most everyone knows about the product.
Declining Stage: Consumers start looking for the next big thing. It is important to plot where you are on this lifecycle. If you're in the Introductory and Growth Stages, you should rely more heavily on promotional channels like public relations and promotions that reach out to consumers and teach them about your product's features and benefits.
On the opposite end of the continuum are the Maturity and Declining Stages, when your goal changes from 'reach and teach' to 'reach and remind'. You need to tap people on the shoulder and say, "Don't forget about us." Advertising and sponsorships are ideal channels at these stages.
Lonny Kocina is the CEO and Founder of Media Relations Agency which has been in business for nearly 35 years. During that time, Kocina also founded and sold two other businesses: Mid America Events and Expos, and Checkerboard Internet Services. Prior to that, Lonny worked as a marketing director for Investment Rarities Inc., a company with sales over 4 billion dollars. Kocina has also been a long time member of Vistage International which is a CEO peer mentoring organization. He was also a volunteer marketing mentor for Junior Achievement and the Carlson School of Business. For fun he has taught Principles of Marketing at the college level, and his recent book, the “CEO’s Guide to Marketing” is an Axiom Business Book silver medal winner as well as an Amazon bestseller.
Lonny likes to kid that his third grade teacher may have summed him up best with a note sent home on his report card. “Lonny is a daydreamer and he’s getting worse each day. He complains of a stomach ache a lot and I don’t think he likes school much either.”
