(III) Marketing strategies in the mature stage
In the mature stage, market demand tends to be saturated, there are few potential consumers, sales growth slows down or even declines, competition gradually intensifies, product pricing is reduced, promotion costs increase, and corporate profits decline. Therefore, enterprises should systematically consider the adjustment of the market, products and marketing mix, expand sales on the basis of maintaining relatively stable sales volume and market share, and improve market share.
1. Market improvement strategy
In the mature stage, the marketing strategies selected by enterprises are as follows
Market improvement strategy refers to maintaining and expanding the market share of products by discovering new uses of products, changing sales methods and opening up new market channels without changing the product itself.
(1) Attract new consumers by trying to find undeveloped parts of the market.
(2) Increase the frequency or quantity of consumer use through publicity and promotion to increase the purchase volume of existing consumers.
(3) Strive to enter new markets through market segmentation by geography, population, use, etc.
(4) Win more consumers from competitors.
2. Product Improvement Strategy
Product improvement strategy refers to improving products to meet the different needs of consumers and increase sales.
(1) Quality improvement, that is, improving the functions of products and opening up new uses, such as improving product durability and reliability.
(2) Feature improvement, that is, adding new features to products, such as specifications, weight, and materials.
(3) Style improvement, that is, changing the tangible parts such as the appearance of products to increase the beauty of products, such as packaging and appearance color.
(4) Additional product improvement, that is, adding additional services to enhance the competitiveness of products.
3. Marketing Mix Adjustment Strategy
Marketing mix adjustment strategy refers to stimulating sales by adjusting one or more factors in the marketing mix.
(1) Strengthening competitiveness by lowering prices, such as special prices, purchase discounts, shipping subsidies, and installment payments.
(2) Changing the form of advertising to attract consumer interest, such as changing the time or frequency of advertising.
(3) Carrying out diversified marketing promotion activities, such as large-scale exhibitions and free gifts.
(4) Expand sales channels, such as adding sales outlets.
For mature products, enterprises should take proactive strategies, such as: discover new uses for products, seek new consumers, change sales methods, reduce prices, improve promotion levels, expand distribution channels or improve service quality, so as to extend the maturity period or recycle the product life cycle.
(IV) Marketing strategies for the decline period
When entering the decline period, products become old and sales decline rapidly. Enterprises need to study and analyze whether to continue selling the product or withdraw from the market. In the decline period, enterprises can choose the following three marketing strategies:
(1) Maintenance strategy. Enterprises continue to use the past strategy, still according to the original market segment, using the same distribution channels, pricing and promotion methods until the product is completely withdrawn from the market.
(2) Contraction strategy. Enterprises concentrate all marketing efforts on one or a few market segments to strengthen the marketing strength in these market segments.
(3) Abandonment strategy. For products that decline rapidly, it is necessary to make a decisive decision and abandon the operation. You can adopt a strategy of complete abandonment, such as completely transferring the product or immediately stopping production; you can also adopt a gradual abandonment approach, gradually transferring the resources occupied by the product to other products.