Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Product Management
and New−Product
Development
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002280 Chapter 10
submarket—and a particular way of satisfying specific needs—then we may see
much shorter product life cycles as improved product ideas come along to replace
the old.New products that do a better job of meeting the needs of specific target customers are more likely to move quickly and successfully
through the introductory stage of the product life cycle.
Product Life Cycles Vary in Length
Some products
move fast
How long a whole product life cycle takes—and the length of each stage—vary
a lot across products. The cycle may vary from 90 days—in the case of toys like the
Ghostbusters line—to possibly 100 years for gas-powered cars.
The product life cycle concept does not tell a manager precisely how longthe
cycle will last. But a manager can often make a good guess based on the life cycle
for similar products. Sometimes marketing research can help too. However, it is
more important to expect and plan for the different stages than to know the pre-
cise length of each cycle.A new product idea will move through the early stages of the life cycle more
quickly when it has certain characteristics. For example, the greater the comparative
advantageof a new product over those already on the market, the more rapidly its
sales will grow. Sales growth is also faster when the product is easy to useand if its
advantages are easy to communicate.If the product can be triedon a limited basis—
without a lot of risk to the customer—it can usually be introduced more quickly.
Finally, if the product is compatiblewith the values and experiences of target cus-
tomers, they are likely to buy it more quickly.
The fast adoption of the Netscape Navigator browser for the Internet’s World
Wide Web is a good example. Netscape offered real benefits. The Internet had been
around for a while, but it was used by very few people because it was hard to access.
Compared to existing ways for computers to communicate on the Internet, Navi-
gator was easy to use and it worked as well with pictures as data. It also offered a
simple way to customize to the user’s preferences. Free online downloads of the soft-
ware made it easy for consumers to try the product. And Navigator worked like
other Windows software that users already knew, so it was easy to install and learn—
and it was compatible with their computers and how they were working. Most of
the initial growth, however, was in the U.S. In less-developed countries where per-
sonal computers were less common and where there were fewer computer networks,
Navigator did not initially have the same comparative advantages.^5