Product Life Cycle Strategies for Nike and Bata: A Detailed Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the product life cycles of Nike and Bata, two prominent brands in the footwear industry. Nike, an American international brand, is examined at its mature stage, focusing on strategies to retain market share amidst strong competition from brands like Adidas and Puma. The analysis includes recommendations for diversifying products, competitive pricing, and emphasizing brand benefits through advertising. In contrast, Bata, a Canadian-owned company, is assessed at the introduction stage of its sports shoe line, highlighting the challenges of entering a new market segment. The report suggests strategies such as rapid skimming, cost-plus pricing, and leveraging digital media for awareness. The analysis provides tailored marketing recommendations for each brand based on their respective stages in the product life cycle, aiming to maximize profitability and market presence. Desklib offers a wealth of similar resources for students.

Running Head: PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE 0
Product Lifecycle

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE 1
Contents
Product life cycle.............................................................................................................................2
Examination.....................................................................................................................................2
Recommendations as the market manager......................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................5

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Product life cycle
The product life cycle is an S shaped curve that is bifurcated into the five distinct stages
namely the product development stage, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. These are the
stages that help the business in the formation of the strategies. The two products that are
examines on the basis of the PLC are Nike and Bata (Stark, 2015).
Nike is an American international brand of Nike Inc. which deals in the footwear mainly.
The foremost products are trainer shoes, sneakers and the sport shoes and Nike has established
itself in the sports market to an apex extent. Bata shoes are the product of the Canadian owned
company Bata Limited.
Examination
NIKE: The product life cycle of the Nike is at the mature stage in terms of the sports
shoes where the customers are already using the product regularly. At this stage the market is
saturated and there are the strong management challenges where the selection of the product
must be careful. There are many competitors of Nike, like Adidas and Puma which are giving the
tuff competition to the company. At this stage the major aim of the company is to retain the
market share and side by side derive the strategies to maximize the profits (Luximon & Jiang,
2016).
BATA: The product life cycle of the Bata is at the introduction stage in terms of the
sports shoes. The company has just entered into the arena of the sports shoes and the trainer
shoes. Currently the Bata was known for the casuals and the regular or formal uses but now the
company is expanding to the new segments. The different colors and sizes are available for the
men. At the initial stage the company distributes and made available for purchase after being

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE 3
developed at the foremost stage. The profits at this stage are negative and the main focus of the
Bata shall be on those customers that are ready for innovation. Since every stage creates different
challenges for the company therefore the strategies shall be devised accordingly (Pigosso &
McAloone, 2016).
Recommendations as the market manager
Marketing strategies of Nike: Since the Nike is already at the mature stage the marketing
strategy of the company is to retain the customers and grab the greater market share.
 At this stage the company must diversify the product and chose the other line of
expansion.
 The price shall be set that can either match or beat the competition.
 The advertising of Nike shall focus on brand differences and benefits.
 With the help of the sales promotion the brands shall be switched (Nasir & Ito, 2015).
Marketing strategies of Bata: Bata though is one of the renowned brands yet to make the
sports shoes an exclusive brand the company must follow the strategies.
 Strategy such as rapid skimming can be used by keeping the prices at extremely high
level and the promotion is done to a greater level.
 The Bata shall use the cost plus price strategy to deliver the products, the distribution
shall be based on the selective distribution (Stark, 2015).
 With the help of the digital media and social media platforms the awareness shall be
created and the company may take heavy expenditures to create an opportunity of trial.

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References
Luximon, A., & Jiang, L. (2016). The Role of Footwear Fitting and Comfort in the
Environmental Impact of Footwear. In Advances in Physical Ergonomics and Human
Factors (pp. 183-190). Springer, Cham.
Nasir, N., & Ito, T. (2015). 102 A Proposal of Cloud Manufacturing Architecture for Footwear
Industry in Product Life Cycle Management. In The Proceedings of Manufacturing
Systems Division Conference 2015 (pp. 47-48). The Japan Society of Mechanical
Engineers.
Pigosso, D. C., & McAloone, T. C. (2016). Maturity-based approach for the development of
environmentally sustainable product/service-systems. CIRP Journal of Manufacturing
Science and Technology, 15, 33-41.
Stark, J. (2015). Product lifecycle management. In Product lifecycle management (Volume
1) (pp. 1-29). Springer, Cham.