Research Paper on "Branding and Life Cycle"

Quoted Instructions for "Branding and Life Cycle" Assignment:

Activity 6

Section 4: Product Positioning, Branding, and Life Cycle

Product managers need to analyze the competitive landscape for their products in order to fully understand how consumers perceive their brand versus the competition. In some product categories, consumers have a wide range of choices between products. A company must understand how their own product is perceived relative to the choices available to consumers in order to develop a marketing strategy that leads to the establishment of market share or growth.

Marketing efforts may drive consumer wants and needs, product brand managers have a responsibility to society overall. Truly effective marketing strategy reaches the right customer at the right time with the right product. Marketers need to be sensitive, however, to ensure that product needs and desires are effectively matched with target markets. In addition, effective marketing runs the risk of being critiqued when either targeted to selected markets, such as children, or involving certain product categories, such as cigarettes. A company must find the balance between creating and driving consumer demand and ensuring that consumer needs are not exploited, to truly achieve marketing success.

It is also important to understand the product life cycle for each product. The life cycle provides an idea of how long the product has been in the market, and the overall length of the product category. Understanding the product life cycle can help a company to apply the appropriate marketing mix and strategy based on the product stage. A product in the introductory stage, for example, will require a marketing mix that develops brand awareness and helps to introduce the product to the market, whereas a mature product will require a marketing mix that maintains market share and positions the product competitively against competitors. The following graph portrays the product life cycle curve.

Assignment 6 Marketing Efforts and Consumer Behavior

It is evident that marketing plays a significant role in our society. A philosophical question to ponder is, does marketing drive society or does society drive marketing? Since it is a philosophical question there is no one correct answer. You can find support for either position. In this activity you will take one of these positions and argue that perspective.

Spotlight on Skills: Develop your Logical Thinking and Argumentative Skills

In this activity and in many other activities you will be called upon to present your ideas, make arguments, and defend a point of view. All of this calls for research based evidence, as well as logical thinking skills that provide the framework for presenting this evidence. In this activity, develop your logical thinking skills through first considering the developmental stages of your own thinking: Developing as rational persons: Viewing our development in stages.

Developing as rational persons: Viewing our development in stages. The Critical Thinking Community.

Main Task: Analyze the Cause and Effect Relationship of Marketing Efforts and Consumer Behavior

For this activity, select a position based on one of the following statements:

Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants

Marketing reflects the needs and wants of customers

Justify your selection by demonstrating how either consumers or marketing efforts drive the direction of the other. If you believe that marketing efforts shape consumer behavior, analyze which product management skills may improve market share and brand image. If you see consumers as the main directors of marketing strategy, analyze which behaviors product managers need to pay attention to when developing marketing plans.

Include at least five (5) peer-reviewed articles to support your analysis. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including older articles, may be included.

Learning Outcomes: 1, 2, 4

Assignment Outcomes

Assess theories and best practices in brand management to build consumer trust.

Evaluate the roles, problems encountered, skills required, and the functions of the brand manager in order to improve marketing strategies.

Develop a product strategy intended to maximize brand value and avoid historical marketing errors. *****

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