M4D2: BUS 351 Discussion Post

Brands can last forever as evidenced by a number of brands that are entering their one hundredth year of survival. For a brand to have immortality, it must persist to have a competitive advantage in its product differentiation dimensions. Take Tide for example, which debuted in 1946. The raw materials that produce clothing change continuously and so must the products that clean them. Somehow Tide has been able to keep its brand perspective and remain competitive in the market place. 

Brands meet exact consumer needs and wants and provide specifics for these needs and wants. As consumer needs and wants alter, develop, or vanish, brands must also change, evolve, and finally terminate. The loss of the brand’s point-of-difference in the marketplace or its lack of point-of-parity with other brands will cause its downfall. Firms can be best served when marketing helps them to appreciate and recognize the inevitability of brand declines and plan for the formation of and marketing of newer brands to replace declining brands quickly. 

Read the following article:

• PR Newswire.  (2011, July 27). PR Newswire US. Retrieved from EBSCO host: http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=201107270001PR.NEWS.USPR.NY41963&site=eds-live

Technology is constantly evolving and, as such, smartphones, like the iPhone, have made personal digital assistants (PDAs) all but obsolete. Considering this, answer the following:

• Do technology-based products have finite lives?
• When they are in product development planning, is the products life cycle a predetermined time frame?
• Or, do market conditions dictate the life of the product?