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Break free from the product life cycle.
1Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA. ymoon@hbs.edu
Harvard Business Review
|June 3, 2005
Summary
Rethink product life cycles by using innovative marketing strategies. Companies can shift products into growth phases by repositioning them in unexpected ways, challenging traditional market boundaries.
Area of Science:
- Marketing Strategy
- Consumer Behavior
- Business Innovation
Background:
- Most businesses rely on the product life cycle model (introduction, growth, maturity, decline).
- This traditional model assumes products inevitably decline after maturity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To challenge the inevitability of the product life cycle.
- To introduce novel positioning strategies that can alter customer perception and extend product growth phases.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of three distinct positioning strategies: Reverse, Breakaway, and Stealth positioning.
- Examination of how these strategies alter consumer categorization and market dynamics.
Main Results:
- Reverse positioning removes expected attributes while adding novel ones (e.g., JetBlue).
- Breakaway positioning associates products with unrelated categories (e.g., Swatch).
- Stealth positioning masks a product's true nature to acclimate consumers (e.g., Sony's robot).
Conclusions:
- These positioning strategies can disrupt established markets and extend product relevance.
- Companies can proactively transform categories by redefining product boundaries.
- Disruptive positioning creates competitive advantages and challenges incumbents.