The product life cycle (PLC) describes the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures. It proceeds through multiple phases, involves many professional disciplines and requires a multitude of skills, tools and processes.


Market Introduction

This stage is characterized by a low growth rate of sales as the product is newly launched and consumers may not know much about it.

Growth

The growth stage is the period during which the product eventually and increasingly gains acceptance among consumers, the industry, and the wider general public.

Maturity

During this stage, sales growth has started to slow down, and the product has already reached widespread acceptance in the market, in relative terms. 


Decline Stage

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Brand

1. Brand

 - a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name.

2. Goal of a brand

 - to protect the strength of your brand so that it continues to create value for your company.

3. How can having a strong brand help your company?

• Members of your target audience will be more apt to associate your firm with the specific intangibles your brand conveys – intangibles that are important to them. As a result, they will feel good about doing business with you. Those intangibles might include good value, reliability, success, luxury, hipness, social consciousness, liberal thinking, conservative thinking, creative, upper class, and so on.

• Your brand will help foster an emotional relationship between your firm and members of your target audience. This relationship will make them more inclined to do business with you and to remain loyal to your firm, which means that they are more likely to provide you with repeat business.

• Members of your target audience will be more apt to spend money with your business rather than with one of your competitors. This will be true even if your services cost more.

•Your brand will help reduce the amount you must spend on marketing because your firm will be a known quantity to members of your target audience. Therefore, you will not have to work as hard to sell your services to them.

4. How does a company build a successful brand?

 - Consider who you are, what you do, and why it matters. This is key to being able to put forward a brand that attracts and keeps loyal customers. For example, if the core principles of your company are to manufacture in a sustainable manner, using fair paid labor and donating to charities, this ethos must also pervade your products.



 - Think about your opportunities and threats. Check out what the competitors are doing. Ask yourself these questions:
What are the competitors doing that your product or service is not?
Is this a good or a bad thing?
If it is bad (i.e., your business is lagging behind), how can you remedy this - branding will not be the sole solution, as there must be substance behind your branding claims.
What gaps are there in the industry that your product or service meets? How can you use branding to jazz this up and let folks know what you're doing?

 - Get a real face. This means, who is the human face of your business? For example, Paul Newman or Richard Branson are excellent examples of real faces of businesses. Does your company have a charismatic symbol head or should you hire an actor or other spokesperson to become part of your company's branding?

 - Decide who your target audience is. Branding should be targeted to the age group that your product or service is aimed at.

 - Determine how you will execute your plan. Use your business' graphic artists, designers, publicists to put together a decent plan. Or, if it's you alone as an individual, create a plan that outlines:
Logo
Figurehead
By-lines (catchy phrases summing up your business)
Jingles
Color
Font
Where the branding goes - on the product and associated advertising

What part should ethics play?

Business Objectives : What part should ethics play?

To succeed selling their products, some businesses target children in order to attract their attentions and make children’s parents to buy their products. Because childrens are easier to lure and they have abilities to make their parents to buy the products, companies advertise products that can draw children’s attention. Nowadays, most parents buy products if their children want the product for an special day such as Christmas. Some children gain products by crying or make a disturbance in the mall. Thus, in the businesses’ point of view, targeting children instead of parents are more beneficial and efficient.

There are several methods that businesses use to target children.

First, businesses use TV commercials. They are usually simple, fancy, and emphasize the points where children will be interest in. The commercial is usually very interesting and sometimes attract adolescents too. Commercials put cartoon characters or cover things that children desire. For example, one cheetos commercial is about a group of boys and a cheetos character acting cool and dance when they are eating cheetos. Childrens will see this commercial and will buy the product because this snack is recognized as “cool stuff”, and they enjoy watching commercials, because it’s funny and there is a cartoon character in the commercial.

Second, when the businesses think the effects of TV commercials got weaker, they advertise their products by using games, movies, or dramas. For example, before I had a chance of watching “High School of Musical”, I already knew the movie by playing flash games. As I played the game, I got interested in the original movie. Sometimes it is more effective to people who doesn’t watch TV, or skip TV commercials when they come out.

Lastly, businesses can directly advertise their products. They can make a program for kids that directly advertise their products. This method is straightforward, and has direct relationship with viewing rate. They also can advertise by posting their logos on the school bus or donating school instruments.

Nowadays, people realize marketing products to children directly can affect children in a bad way. For example, some movies advertise Mcdonalds. When a child see this movie, he or she also wants to eat Mcdonalds, which can affect his or her weight, and can lead to obedience. Advertisement also can affect children’s mental health, and can lead them to a wrong direction.

Even though most of the marketing products can be harmful, some advertisements are ok. For example, businesses that sells healthy food such as cheese or juice can be advertised and can have positive effect. Public advertisement also can make children’s mental health healthier.

The essay’s question was “What part should ethics play”. I think businesses shouldn’t be moral, and they won’t. If one company become ethical, they will probably fail, and suffer loss after loss.

Organizational objects

1. Smart

Specific - should apply directly to what that business does - not general terms.

Measurable - must set a quantitative value to know when the goal is achieved or how
                    much has been achieved.
Achievable - can be demotivating if it is something impossible(or seemingly impossible
                   to achieve).

Relevant - job specific so it has real meaning to each employee.

Time specific - without the element of time, it is impossible to determine the achievement
                      of a goal.

2. One benefit of corporate aim

They become the starting point for departmental objectives on which effective management is based.


3. A business without a long-term corporate plan or aim is likely to drift from event to event without a clear sense of purpose.


4. Mission statements outline the overall purpose of the organisation. A vision statement, on the other hand, describes a picture of the preferred future and outlines how the future will look if the organisation and achieves its mission.

5.

• Too vague and general so that they end up saying little which is specific about the business or its future plans.

• Based on a public relations exercise to make stakeholder groups 'feel good' about the organisation.
• Virtually impossible to analyse or disagree with.
• rather 'woolly' and lacking in specific detail, so it is common for two completely different businesses to have very similar mission statements.

6. Profit maximization - producing at the level of output where the greatest positive
                                  difference between total revenue and total costs is achieved.


7. profit satisficing - aiming to achieve enough profit to keep the owners happy but not aiming to work flat out to make as much profit as possible.


8. Large firms will be less likely to be taken over and should be able to benefit from economies of scale.


9. Businesses that do not attempt to grow may cease to be competitive and, eventually, will lose their appeal to new investors.


10. Three limitations

• Over-rapid expansion can lead to cash-flow problems.
• Sales growth might be achieved at the expense of lower profit margins
• Larger businesses can experience dis-economies of scale.

11.  The marketing mix of the business is proving to be less successful than that of its competitors.

12. The marketing mix of the business is proving to be more successful than that of its competitors.

13. for first two years of trading. 

14. Because of maximizing short-term sales revenue and shareholder value.

Baskin Robbins 31 CSR

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY provides Baskin Robbins 

with a central frame of reference for organizational decisions, strategic goal setting and behaviors that respect all of our stakeholders. Corporate Social Responsibility is also a way to formalize our tradition of doing what's right for our consumers, franchisees, employees and the communities they serve.

Vision: Serving Responsibly

To be recognized as a company that responsibly serves our guests, franchisees, employees, communities, business partners, and the interests of our planet.

Employees: From employees to franchisees,  Baskin Robbins believe in treating everyone with respect and fairness so they are empowered to reach their goals.

Consumers: Baskin Robbins are passionate about offering our guests delicious products they will enjoy, giving them plenty of menu options, and providing accurate nutrition information so they can make the best choices for themselves.

Environment: Baskin Robbins recognize that everything they do has an impact on the environment. From the materials they use, to the way they  construct and operate our stores, they are committed to adopting better, more sustainable approaches whenever possible.

Mission 

• Honesty - Embrace the truth about oneself and the world.
• Transparency - Demonstrate openness and vulnerability.
• Humility - Acknowledge own mistakes and commit to learning.
• Integrity - Say what you think and do what you say.
• Respectfulness - Honor the dignity, inclusion, and diversity of others.
• Fairness - Do what is right based on common principles.
• Responsibility - Make yourself accountable to the community.

• Leadership - Responsibility with passion at every level.
• Innovation - Excellence in everything we do.
• Execution - Ownership and accountability for results, success and failure.
• Social Stewardship - Demonstration of good corporate citizenship and responsibility to all constituencies.
• Fun - Approach every challenge with enthusiasm, energy and excitement... celebrate every step of the way!”