Have tried to collate potential growth strategies which can be utilized by product managers to manage growth of products at various stages in the product's lifecycle.

1. Growth
Strategy
Product Management
Prepared by Abhiyantesh Verma
and Deepak Baloni

2. Product Development Process
 Finding Target Consumer’s need through-
 Shallow observation
 Depth Probing (Voice of Customer)
 Above process will provide large chunk of information, this data will
be converted to consumer insights by data analysis
 Mapping Consumer’s needs serves as technical specifications for
Product Development
Segmentation
 Segmentation creates a consumption barrier
 Product with a specification attractive to one group (target Consumer)
 The same product will be un-attractive for the other groups (non-
target) due to consumer barrier

3. Growth Strategy
 Once the product is launched, a firm’s performance is measured by –
 Absolute growth – performance between any two time period
 Relative Growth- Growth relative to competition, growth in Market
Share
 In order to grow further a company have two options-
 Internal Leverage – Intrasegment and Intersegment Growth
 External Leverage

4. Intra-segment Growth- Overcoming the Perceptual
Barrier
 Market perception initiated, by offering a product (fixed in its dimensions)
 For a select target segment and creating a value chain
 Intra-segment Growth Options-
a. Leveraging the existing Value Chain to its full potential before embarking
upon something new
b. Add Sales from sticking to the existing segment, exhausting to its full
potential
Idea is to increase sales by increasing usage through suggesting creative
usage (increase usage frequency, alternative usage, increasing per usage
consumption) of the same product to the same consumers.
 Least risk strategy of consumption expansion with existing product and existing
market
 Has least investment burden as product and market are unaltered
 Expansion gives opportunity for productivity gains from learning effects
 Key Drivers-
a. Marketing Research- unveils potential applications
b. Brand Communication – Conveys the idea effectively
Sales
Revenue
= No. of
Consumers
(Same)
X Quantity consumed per person
(increased, by creative
suggestions for more usage)
X Price
(Same)

5. Intersegment Growth- Overcoming Consumption
Barrier
 As a firm grow, it excels in its skills and competencies in value chain activities
 When the existing value chain and the existing target consumer segment is
completely exhausted, we look at other segments within the same market
 Crossing over to new segments requires adaptation to the product to overcome
consumption barriers separating the two segments
 The product category remains the same with slight modifications.
 The strategy is to leverage the currently served market and the company
competencies and strengths
 Less risky option since the product category is same with little change in
operations to increase its participation in the market by creating product
variations
 The strategy calls for extending the product line thus called line extension
strategy
 Modifications Needed-
a. Product Modifications- adaptations created in the product
b. Brand Modifications – adaptations created in brand identity to match with the
extended products
Sales
Revenue
= No. of Consumers (more,
from different segments)
X Quantity consumed
per person
X Price
(different
points)

6. Product Modifications
 Variations in a product could be created by modifying its dimensions
like-
 Ingredient- Computers with different microprocessors
 Form- Powder, bar, flakes, liquid etc
 Size- Availability in various size, number of users allowed
 Color- Notional differences
 Flavours- different flavors provide different stimulations and
increase usage frequency
 Packaging- Variations in aesthetics
 Application or Usage – Suggested applications, chocolate before
Shubh kaam, chocolate as Rakhi gift, chocolate on Salary day
(Pahli tareekh), Chocolate on an achievement and so on.

7. External Leverage- Brand Extensions
 When you exhaust your internal resources completely and leveraged
all the intersegments too, you still look for further growth
 The obvious strategy now is to cross over to new market, leveraging
the asset created outside the balance sheet i.e. the BRAND
 The brand name contributes to extension by adding preexisting
image to extension
 It adds associations of superior functionality, emotions and user
imagery and thus pull consumers to create a favorable response
 The brand as it exists in consumer’s mind must be kept in mind while
considering for brand extension, leveraging brand strengths and
minimize crossover of its weakness

8. Types of Brand Extensions
 Product Form Extensions- A different product form constituting entirely
a different product category
 Companion Product- To capitalise on prodcut complimentarily, the
consumer may view both products jointly and hence provide scope for
launching brand extension, eg- toothpaste and toothbrush
 Customer Franchise- To meet the needs of a specific customer group,
eg- variety of products meant for infants from J&J
 Company expertise- based on the core competency of the company, eg-
Variety of products from Honda – scooters, engines, lawn mowers, cars
are all based on the expertise of the company i.e. engines
 Brand Distinction- Some brands achieve distinction in some unique
attribute, feature or benefit which gets associated with the brand, like
parachute for cocnut nourishment has helped the company to leverage
the brand in hair cream, cooking oil, shampoo etc.
 Brand Prestige- brand exclusivity or prestige bestows great extension
opportunities

9. Brand Extension possibility
 Brand extension is lucrative stategy, but not every extension is a
success story
 Brand extension merges the brand with a new product
 If the associations of consumers with the product are different with
the nature of new product, it will create a contradiction and confuse
the consumer about the perception created by the brand originally,
this will lead to destruction of the brand identity
 Such situation is dangerous and leads to destruction of brand equity
 Hence below mentioned characteristics must be taken care of for
brand extension-
 Associative Structure (Presence)
 Favourability of Associations (Positivity)
 Distinctiveness of Associations (Uniqueness)

10. Brand Extendability
 There are 5 types of brands, depending on their nature, their
extendibility range from least extendible (Product Brand) to highly
extendibility (Philosophy Brand)
The
Product
Brand
Formula
Brand
Know how
brands
Interest
Brand
Philosophy
Brand

11. Technology Products/services
 Management of Technology Products/services are different from
FMCG products
 Technology products/services can be categorized into B2B and
B2C and both have different features-
 B2C – Consumer Solutions
 Have strong network externalities
effect
 Have early mover advantage
 Once the product is accepted
and sets a standard, it grows
exponentially
 Once the standard is created, its
hard to eliminate
 Leadership position is hard to
dethrone
 B2B – Enterprise Solutions
 Long term investment
 Have strategic implications
 Includes high information
search
 Involves high risk
 Multiple decision makers

12. Product Lifecycle
 Every product has 4 stages in its lifecycle- Intrduction, Growth,
Maturity and Decline
 A product manager’s biggest challenge is to hold the product at its
Maturity stage as long as possible
https://www.thestreet.com/markets/commodities/product-life-cycle-14882534

13. Growth Strategy in Technology Products
 At Introduction Stage-
 Focus on building first mover advantage; Pre-empt the market. Enter early,
achieve fast-cycle product development, make early deals with key
customers and adopt penetration pricing.
 Strategic Alliances: Firm will need the support of consumers, suppliers of
complements, even competitors. Not even the strongest companies can
afford to go it alone in a standards war.
 Create high entry barriers
 Focus on increasing adoption due to network effects
 Compatibility with other products/softwares/platforms, to enjoy higher
network externalities
 At growth stage-
 Transition from niche market to mass market by lowering cost and
increasing quality
 Increase Customer base
 Invest in supporting infrastructure to facilitate growth
 Sharing value created with allies
 At Maturity stage-
 Internal Leverage
 External Leverage
 Customer satisfaction and delight

14. Recommendation for Microsoft products
 For microsoft products, growth strategies could be,
 Different number of users per liscence, gets cheaper (per user) as
the users increase, allows users to share cost with friends and
provide more customers to the company
 Freemium options like adobe
 Pay as you use- payment for usage, duration wise and usage extent
(feature wise) different users may have requirements for different
features. Pay as per usage could be attractive amongst users at it
would reduce their overall cost
 Tie ups with complimentary/related product’s firms to promote our
product
 Influencer marketing