Product Life Cycle Stages

University of the People

Marketing Management

Dr. Harsha Lalwani

December 06, 2022

 Product Life Cycle Stages

All products or services change through a product life cycle. “Typical stages of a

product life cycle include development, introduction, growth and maturity, and decline,

ending with the product's eventual withdrawal from the market. By better understanding

these different stages, you can increase the profitability, interest, and demand for your

product or service.” (Migrator, 2019) Depending on which stage is a product you can use

different marketing strategies to improve your sales or revenue.

I would like to compare two peanut butter brands, Skippy Peanut Butter and

Joyfully Nutty. Skippy Peanut butter is a very famous brand known worldwide, while

Joyfully Nutty is a new local brand. As you can imagine, they are in different stages of

the product life cycle, one is at the introduction stage while the other is at the maturity

stage. Due to being in different stages, their marketing is very different.

Joyfully Nutty is at the introduction stage since it just launched its product. It is

offered as a new product that is organic and homemade. It thought about its design as

colorful and modern, the material they use to make it sustainable and recyclable, and how

to manufacture to reduce cost due to being homemade. It is advertised as sustainable

since it is plastic free, and they will buy back the glass containers. They explain why

should choose them, due to doing homemade peanut butter with adding extra oils or fat

and using good quality organic nuts.

Joyfully Nutty targets a small group of people. It is promoted on Facebook and

farmer markets. In the farmer's markets, they will offer samples of their different nut

kinds of butter. You can buy it through Facebook or at organic grocery shops. The
locations they offer it at are specific to target people who prefer healthy and organic

products. It also offers free delivery and a free small sample of a different flavor. Its price

is like commercial brands resold in Cambodia, such as Skippy or Aladdin, around five or

six dollars. This brand uses a skimming price strategy, selling the product at a high price

to recover the inversion so it can recapitalize.

I would suggest to Joyfully Nutty, use the rapid skimming model to create a strong

identity and create more customers. A strategy would be to look for suppliers to stock its

peanut butter, leaving it on consignments in different areas of the city and adding coupons

in its jars, so people buy one more time. Another good strategy would be to partner with a

bigger local brand to improve its reputation.

In another hand, Skippy has entered the maturity stage of its cycle. This means

that the product level off. Skippy is focusing on enhancing the features of the product to

make it attractive to customers. Therefore it´s it offers a variety of peanut butter, such as

crunchy, smooth, creamy, etc. It is also creating new products, like individual squeeze

packs, peanut butter bites, peanut butter with protein, etc. This brand has also changed the

design of the product over the years. It has kept a low price, so customers are willing to

buy it. It has an optimal price point, which is not too high as expensive brands and not so

low as generic brands. This helps it have an accessible price but also shows its quality.

Skippy has also focused on increasing its distribution, by entering the global

market, and it has been introduced to different countries having the same design, so it is

standardized. since they sell it in Cambodia in big supermarkets while it is a product from

the USA. It focuses its advertisement on different internet platforms, like Facebook,

Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. It has a strong social media presence, having more than

655 thousand followers. (Hutchinson,2014)

 I would suggest Skippy differentiate its product from their competition. Innovate

with its products and keep creating new products that will satisfy its customers. For

example, modifying its product to powder, so people who do trekking or run marathons

can bring it with them. Find a strategy to modify its product, so it doesn´t go to the

decline stage. Another suggestion would be to continue deafferenting themselves through

the marketing campaigns they have.

Marketing is very different for both companies since they are at different stages.

Joyfully Nutty marketing is focused on attracting people and creating new customers.

This brand is working on testing channels and building product awareness (Riserbato,

2022). On the other hand, marketing for Skippy, which is in the maturity stage, will focus

on differentiation rather than awareness (Riserbato, 2022). Skippy is increasing its

distribution and working on adding new products to its brand to please consumer needs.

Both are doing a great job in the stage of product life, and both have areas of

opportunities that can improve their revenues.

 Reference,

Featured products. Skippy® Brand Peanut Butter.

(n.d.). https://www.peanutbutter.com/products/featured_products

Hutchinson, A. (2014, December 22). The big brand theory: Skippy peanut butter builds

community through interaction and engagement. Social Media Today.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/big-brand-theory-skippy-peanut-butter-

builds-community-through-interaction-and-engagement

Tsou, D. (2021, December 20). A peanut butter story: The highs and lows of your pricing

strategy. Pricing Strategy Driven by Data.

https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/152127/a-peanut-butter-story-the-

highs-and-lows-of-your-pricing-strategy

Kopp, C. M. (2022, May 11). Product life cycle explained: Stage and examples.

Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/product-life-cycle.asp

Migrator. (2019, May 31). Product life cycle.  NIBusinessInfo.CO.UK.

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/product-life-cycle.

Principles of marketing. (2015). University of Minnesota Libraries

Publishing. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.1901 (Original work published 2010)

Riserbato, R. (2022, November 30). The 6 stages of the product life cycle. HubSpot

Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/product-life-cycle
Slid, S. (2022, October 27). Product life cycle stages are explained with examples.

Fractory. https://fractory.com/product-life-cycle-explained/