 Heavy advertising and promotion are required during the maturity stage.

Advertising and
promotion emphasize product differentiation and try to build brand loyalty. Advertising
encourages competitors’ customers to switch to the original brand. Fast food restaurants in
the maturity stage, such as McDonald’s and Burger King, often run commercials to
persuade consumers that their prices, portion sizes, freshness, and value are better than the
competitors.

4. DECLINE STAGE
Sales drop rapidly in the decline stage of a product. This occurs because the product is no
longer meeting customers’ needs or consumers have found a better product. Fads in the clothing
industry often are short-lived and quickly reach the decline stage. Some automobile models have
loyal customers and remain popular for years.
The market is shrinking during the decline stage, reducing the number of sales that can be
shared among the remaining competitors. Because of low sales, businesses are unwilling to incur
additional costs to make product improvements. Distribution of the product is reduced to only
those markets that remain profitable. Prices are often lowered to reduce inventory of the product.
Advertising and promotion efforts are reduced to a level that helps retain loyal customers.

 Marketing Strategies for the Decline Stage

During the decline stage, businesses must decide whether to keep or eliminate weak
products. There are several strategies businesses can follow. A business may decide to
broaden the market by adding new features or by binding new users for the product.
Another option is to reduce inventory by selling the product at lower prices through
secondary markets.
 Obsolescense
One reason products reach the decline stage is obsolescence. Obsolescence occurs when a
product is out of date, no longer wanted, or unusable. There are many form of obsolescence.
When a new product or technology surpasses the old one, technical obsolescence occurs.
 Sometimes businesses intentionally introduce obsolescence into their marketing strategy.
The objective of planned obsolescence is to generate more sales by reducing the time
between purchases. For example, a computer printer is manufactured to have a short life
span, meaning consumers have to purchase new printers frequently.

PEPSICO AND COCA-COLA

While in its maturity stage, PepsiCo faces the challenge of competing with Coca-Cola, which
is ranked number one in the soft drink world. PepsiCo's soft drinks (Pepsi®, Mountain Dew®,
and Sierra Mist®) make up about one-quarter of its sales. Aquafina®, Tropicana®, and
Lipton® are also part of the Pepsi brand. PepsiCo also owns Frito-Lay®, the world's number
one producer of snack foods, including Doritos®, Fritos®,and Ruffles®. PepsiCo's mission is
to be the world's premier consumer products company focused on convenient foods and
beverages.
To help meet its lofty goal, PepsiCo has entered into agreements with restaurants, schools, and
the NFL. Restaurants like Applebee's now offer Pepsi instead of Coke. NFL fans who prefer
Coke will have to settle for Pepsi now that Pepsi is the official soft drink of the NFL. Pepsi is
also going head to head with Coke in its advertising campaigns. Pepsi commercials promote
the cola wars. Pepsi positions itself as "the choice of a new generation." There's no doubt that
Pepsi will continue advertising heavily throughout its maturity stage to try to beat the
competition.

 BLOCKBUSTER AND NETFLIX

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, video rental stores such as Blockbuster were extremely
popular. Consumers could rent their favorite movie videos for several days and then return
them to the video store. Blockbuster even sold popcorn and other snacks commonly available
at the movie theater to help enhance the customers' movie rental experience. Blockbuster
entered its growth stage with an innovative business model. It offered a larger selection of
videos, had computerized inventory, provided a quick video check-out process, and stayed
open until midnight. Blockbuster began widespread distribution by expanding its operations
from coast to coast. However, in the late 1990s, Blockbuster hit the decline stage when Netflix
introduced its new online mail-order movie rental service. The convenience of renting movies
without having to leave their homes was a big hit with consumers. The success of Netflix
coincided with the introduction of DVDs, which soon made video tapes obsolete. DVDS were
inexpensive to ship. Netflix now gives consumers the option of downloading movies via the
Internet. Blockbuster soon realized that it would need to make adjustments to its marketing
strategy or go out of business. In 2004 Blockbuster launched its own 'online rental service to
try to gain back some of its market share. Blockbuster experienced success through 2007 in its
battle with Netflix, adding customers to its online rental service at a faster rate than its
competitor; however, the competition was too great and Blockbuster declared bankruptcy in
2010. It was purchased by satellite-TV provider Dish Network in 2011. With the backing of
Dish Network, Blockbuster is attempting a comeback by offering competitively priced DVD
and Internet video packages.