Product Life Cycles and Product Management

This book provides--for the first time in a single source--a complete--and systematic treatment of the varying perspectives and dimensions of product management. Onkvisit and Shaw focus on product management and decision making within a product life cycle context, integrating theory, applications, and managerial implications to provide product managers, corporate planners, and entrepreneurs with a balanced, meaningful framework for strategic decisions. Throughout, examples of actual products and company strategies are used to illustrate the authors' points. Following an introductory chapter on the nature and types of products--such as product vs. commodity--and what constitutes a product from the consumer's and management's viewpoint, the authors demonstrate how to formulate appropriate marketing strategies for a variety of market situations. Unusually comprehensive in scope, the book devotes separate chapters to demographic trends and their marketing implications, the evolution of pricing and marketing strategies as the product moves through its life cycle stages, the diffusion of innovations and the adoption process for new products, and the international product life cycle and strategies for meeting foreign competition. An important resource for product managers and marketing professionals, this book is also an ideal text for business school courses in product and marketing management.