Analyze the product life cycle of
your goods or services
and your customer buying habits
when creating your ads
You must consider both the product life cycle of your merchandise or service in addition to customer buying habits when creating advertising for small businesses.
Today, both sellers and buyers each want fast results.
You should recognize that the actual process of turning your prospects into customers still takes time.
Buying cycle times may be shorter today, but the process still exists.
People often buy according to their past purchasing habits and patterns.
These habits can be hard to change.
The Five Product Life Cycle Stages
Classic marketing theory details the life cycle of a product or service as:
(1) introduction,
(2) growth,
(3) maturity,
(4) decline, and
(5) phase-out.
In other words: when it's
(1) New,
(2) Rapidly Accepted,
(3) The Industry Standard,
(4) Fading, and
5) Hard to Find.
Furthermore, the people who buy those products/services can be profiled in different stages:
(a) innovative adapters,
(b) majority adapters, or
(c) stragglers.
Profiles of these three buyer categories (a) (b) (c) are helpful in creating advertising tailored to each phase of the five product life cycles of the goods or services being sold. Judge accordingly.
For example, when you introduce a new product or service, one of your prime target markets would most likely be (a) the early adapters, the innovators.
It has been estimated somewhere around 10 to 20 percent of people do their own research and experimentation about their purchases.
Yet today's research shows an ever-increasing number of people do their research on the web – before they contact anyone or visit a store. This includes innovative AND majority adapters.
And they do their comparisons online. So "unbiased" customer reviews are even more important.
The other 80 percent or so are followers (b) (c). They read, listen to, or watch ads; try recommendations from their friends, neighbors or co-workers; or use coupons, etc.
Most importantly, it happens person-by-person. Over time, relevant small business advertising can remind, motivate and change buying habits for those in each type of profile.
So it is important to let each group individual know your product or service is there and ready for them when they are considering a purchase.
Plan to have your advertising message repeated often enough where it will be available to them when they are ready to explore and make a buying decision.
It "only" takes money and time. Be patient. Keep chipping away at it.
Before you know it, your advertising message will hit the combined targets of your product life cycle and customer buying habits.
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