The Future of Cameras - Essay Example

?Camera Introduction A product life cycle (PLC) is a representation of the different stages that a product goes from development to withdrawal from the market. The different stages of product life Cycle are research & development, introduction, growth, maturity, saturation, decline and withdrawal or re-invention. There is no fixed time period for the Product Life Cycle. Each product may have a different PLC as well as the length of each stage of the PLC of a single product may vary. PLC curve is important from the perspective of a company as PLC may be used for strategic marketing planning for identifying the support needs of a product, redesigning, renovating or withdrawing a product, forecasting cash flow and determining the revenues generated by the business. Below the first camera from Kodak is taken as a product for the description as how it has passed through the different stages of the PLC curve with different combinations of marketing mix i.e. the 4P’s-Product, Price, Place and Promotion being applied to it and how later it had to be differentially renovated as digital camera (Jason, 2006). PLC marketing mix integration Before a product is introduced in the market, a lot of proper research and development goes for the development of the product. The Research is done to find out key things like whether there is need for this type of product will the revenue is worth applying the innovation cost, the cost of production etc. Similar is the case with cameras. Before the market introduction stage, the product was incepted and then developed by the company. Introduction Stage: In the introduction stage, customers are not familiar with this type of product. Since it is a product newly launched people are not fully aware of its advantages, availability and specifications. In this stage, branding, the establishment of quality and performance level, and intellectual property protection like patents and trademarks are done. The pricing of the camera is designed such that it is low enough for market penetration but enough to recover the Research and Development costs incurred. The camera is highly promoted during this stage through advertisement, direct selling as well as dealership because it is newly launched and the customer has to be made to notice the product and be interested in knowing about it. People are made aware of the advantages like good quality photos, comfortable and handy to use, compact etc. so that the potential customers get a reason to buy the new camera. So the potential customers are aimed at and provided with awareness and information about it. The distribution of the camera is selective in its early stage till the customers start accepting the product. Promotion is done based on the innovation factor and the USPs of the new camera. Growth Stage: In the growth stage, sales are likely to grow as the customers are made aware of the product well. Profits go up due to active promotions in the introduction stage when people became aware of the advantages of a camera and had the emotional connect established that by buying a camera they do not buy only a product but they took home a way to keep their memories safe. So, in this stage the sale of the camera starts increasing at an accelerated rate and may even reach a peak. At this time, other companies in this industry became aware of the benefits of this product lunch and started launching their own cameras, as such the competition increased. The price is still kept higher as the monopolistic competition increased. During the growth stage, the promotion is not needed to be aggressive as the market penetration had already been done. Maturity Stage: In the maturity stage, the cameras have several competitions. Every player would start to add up to the basic and bring an augmented product to the market. As a result, a number of similar brand like Kodak, Canon, Sony are in the market. The price competition is increased and so is the price sensitivity. The profit margin though lowered negligibly, yet the business remains prospering due to the high volume sale and the development and promotion costs being lowered substantially. Due to the availability of similar types of cameras with different prices from different brands, the customer now has a wide range of cameras to choose from. During maturity, the market share was high as well as the competition. So the promotion of cameras had to be more persuasive in pattern and thus the cost of promotion also increases (Kotler, 2003). Saturation Stage: The film cameras had a long maturity life during which at a point there was no more possibilities of altering the features of the existing products and pushing its sale. During the saturation stage the market is majorly flooded with competition. The placing is done by trying to find unexplored market segments. The product is adapted to add to or change some features in it. The quality of the product is tried to be improved. The necessity to implement new strategies becomes more pressing. Decline Stage: In the decline stage, the cost of supporting the camera becomes higher. The technology is changing and thus the cost of keeping up the same camera is likely to incur higher costs to the company. Clearly, the sales volume starts decreasing and the need to discontinue or phase out the product is felt by the business. It proves to be profitable to generate at least some return by clearing the stock in inventory and selling out some of the cameras at a discounted price (The Times 100 Business Case studies, 1995-2013). Withdrawal or Re-innovation: After the decline stage, the product can be either withdrawn from the market or an innovation may be made for a launching a new product in the same series. When the film cameras market reached saturation and the film camera as a product remained in the maturity level for a long period of time, then Kodak decided to discontinue the film based cameras and introduce the digital cameras in the market. The sale of the range of digital cameras launched by Kodak has steadily grown and in recent years has surpassed the sale of the 35mm film cameras. Now, the digital cameras are popular among all people including professional photographers (Elison, 2013). Conclusion Today, as cameras are not looked into as a major technological device by common people, the need for high innovation is more important for launching a camera in the market which is primarily dominated by the Smartphones. The objective of keeping memories safe is substantially fulfilled by mobile phones and tablets equipped with high end cameras. Cameras are now taking a backseat in the minds of common people and the need for a camera is much replaced by a smartphone which people find more useful in terms of compactness and ease of carrying. The biggest competitors for cameras in the market are the high end cell phones which are capable of all the functions of a camera and more. If it is possible to put the abilities of a DSLR into a cell phone that would be the creation of a highly augmented product. However, the introduction of high end cameras in the market have gained interest from the professional photographers and armed with expensive lenses and latest technology, photos and movies clicked by high end cameras are a treat for the visuals. The missing thing in cameras is the possibility of using user friendly software like those designed for the smartphones and tablets. The use of software and applications for synchronizing with the World Wide Web will surely be a factor which will prevent the cameras to reach the decline stage. Instead the re-innovation of a new series of cameras with the capacity of directly uploading in the internet as well as the use of customer friendly software would not only capture the attention of the customers but also would definitely give the market of cameras a new dimension. Works Cited Elison, K. (2013). Camera Evolution- Dive deep into the past, present, and future of cameras! Retrieved from: http://prezi.com/svqftrubjvte/camera-evolution/. Jason, K. (2006). Product Life Cycle. Retrieved from: http://www.nku.edu/~issues/internet_marketing/newwebpage1.html. Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey. The Times 100 Business Case studies. (1995-2013). Marketing theory. Retrieved from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/marketing/marketing-mix-price-place-promotion-product.html#axzz2k1sIfkpo. Read More