When the sales of your product start to go down, e.g. because the product is outdated or there is too much competition on the market, it enters the decline phase. At that point, you can decide to start developing an entirely new product. A more sustainable choice would be to utilise an extension strategy to prolong your product’s maturity phase and postpone the decline phase. This allows you to utilise your existing production facilities for longer. The following extension strategies are available:
• Rebranding is about creating a new look & feel for an existing product in order to stand out from the competition. You can do this by adding an extra feature, e.g. by implementing an IoT application in a product. There are various ways to do this; Rompa Group’s engineers and developers are happy to think along with you.
• Advertising after rebranding: with this strategy, you try to reach a new audience and become top-of-mind again for your current audience.
• Price cut by lowering your price, you make your product more interesting to many potential customers. A good way to compensate for these costs is by producing locally, where your customers are. Besides being sustainable, it can also be highly cost-effective, e.g. because you save on transport costs and needless inventory.
• Exploring new markets, perhaps there are new opportunities for your product in other countries. In chapter 5 of this whitepaper, we explain how you can make your production process for the international market as sustainable as possible.