Product Design and Life Cycle

The marketing mix

A great product can still fail if the price is wrong, no one has heard of it, or customers cannot buy it where they shop. The marketing mix is the blend of four decisions a business must get right together: Product, Price, Promotion and Place, the four Ps. This module shows how each works, how a product changes over its life cycle, and why the four Ps must be linked to win customers.

Product and mix words

Five ideas run through marketing decisions:

The design mix

The design mix balances three things when creating a product. Which set is it?

• Function, aesthetics and cost
• Product, price and place
• Sales, profit and market share
• Advertising, branding and sponsorship

The four Ps

Every marketing decision falls under one of the four Ps: Product: what you sell, and its design mix. Price: how much you charge, and the strategy behind it. Promotion: how you make customers aware and persuade them. Place: where and how customers can buy it. Get one wrong and the whole mix suffers, so they must work together.

Match each P to its decision

Order the life cycle

Put the phases of the product life cycle into the order a product passes through them.

• Introduction: the product launches and sales start slowly
• Growth: sales rise quickly as the product catches on
• Maturity: sales peak and level off
• Decline: sales fall as interest fades

Plot the life cycle

A product's sales follow the life cycle. It passes through introduction at (1, 1) and growth at (2, 4). At maturity its sales reach their peak of 6. Plot the maturity point where x = 3.

Skimming versus penetration

Two common pricing strategies for a new product, with opposite logic.

Which extend a product's life?

Select the TWO extension strategies a business could use to prolong a product's maturity phase.

• Redesign the packaging or update the product
• Sell it to a new market or find new uses
• Stop making the product altogether
• Cut all advertising to save money

Complete the mix

The marketing mix has four elements. The _____ is what you sell; the _____ is what you charge; _____ raises awareness; and _____ is where customers buy it. Getting these to work together, and to stand out through _____, builds competitive advantage.

Which pricing strategy?

A business launches a brand-new games console with no direct rivals and sets a high initial price to earn as much as possible from eager early buyers. Which pricing strategy is this?

• Price skimming
• Penetration pricing
• Cost-plus pricing
• Competitive pricing

Launch the brand

You are launching a premium coffee brand aimed at young professionals. Make each part of the mix fit that image, and each other.

• What should the PRODUCT focus on for this premium, image-conscious audience?
• Given a premium product and image, which PRICE strategy fits?
• How should you PROMOTE and place it to reach young professionals?

Recommend the mix

A small business is launching a new eco-friendly water bottle for students. Recommend a marketing mix for it, using ALL FOUR Ps together. Explain how your product, price, promotion and place decisions support each other.

• Product: describe the design mix and how it stands out
• Price: choose a strategy and say why it fits the product and audience
• Promotion: pick methods that actually reach students
• Place: say where students would buy it, and link the four Ps together

One recommendation, not four

Weak answers give four separate mini-answers, one per P. Top answers build one integrated recommendation where the Ps support each other: a premium product justifies a higher price, which shapes the promotion you choose and the place you sell it. Always justify each decision with the business's situation, and link the four Ps explicitly. One joined-up mix, not four islands - top band.