EL » 日志 » chapter 10 Product Life Cycle ！& chapter 11 Product Adaptation and Presentation
chapter 10 Product Life Cycle ！& chapter 11 Product Adaptation and Presentation
叛逆者 发表于 2008-02-02 14:45:23
chapter 10 Product Life Cycle （产品的生命周期）
If a company wants to build a lont-term position in export markets, it should decide on a product strategy. It must decide whether or not it must modify its present products or bring out new ones, and it must try to get a good idea of how often it will have to change its products.
It is important to know the distinction between products and product lines. （产品和产品种类）Product lines may go on forever, but products, like human beings, are mortal and progress in definite stages birth through maturity to death.（产品却像人类一样有终结的一天，并且沿着从诞生到成熟直至消亡的明确阶段发展）This is the product life cycle. A thorough understanding of product life cycle is doubly important to an exporter; where a product is in its life cycle on the domestic market may vary a great deal from its possible position in export markets.（一种产品在国内市场所处生命周期的阶段与它在出口市场上可能所处的阶段会大相径庭） A product, which is new at home, may be out-of-date in a foreign market. Conversely, a familiar product at home may differ considerably from one export market to another. Let us examine the life cycle for a specific product, a new fashion dress: the style is designed and samples are made up; the samples are shown to a small circle of adventurous stores, which placed small orders; （这些商店接着提交小批量的订单）the fashion catches on and other stores place orders; soon all dress shops want to stock the new style. Several other manufacturers decide to imitate it ; and once nearly all women are wearing the fashion it ceases to be novel, sales quickly fall off and shops begin to sell off the remaining stocks at a reduced price.
Almost all products eventually pass through four stages in a given market in terms of sales and profitability. Those four stages are: introduction stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage. In Figure 20.1, we can see clearly how the product life cycle develops and how sales and profits change during each stage of its life cycle. However, what we need to note is that products move through the cycle at different speeds, which can vary even with a product category.
The first stage is introduction, which means the product is launched or enters the market and sales rise slowly. It has gone through the embryonic stages of idea evaluation, pilot models and test marketing, broad marketing aim.（它经历了最初的酝酿（胚胎）期，诸如该产品设计观念的评估试选样品和试销等。更大的销售目标是劝说尽可能多的目标客户首次尝试使用这种产品）
The second stage is growth, which means the product is becoming accepted and sales. At this stage, competitors enter the market in large numbers if the profit outlook is particularly attractive. But the arrival of competiting manufacturers tends to legitimize the product in customer's eyes. （可是，这种竞争性生产者的加入往往也是该产品在顾客眼里变得合法化）Exporters should shift to a "buy-my-brand" rather than a "try-my-product" promotional strategy.（这是，出口商应该把它的促销策略从“使用我的产品”及时转变为“购买我的品牌”）
The third stage is maturity, which means sales growth starts to slow down. In the early part of this stage, the last of the unsuccessful competing brands will probably withdraw from the market. For this reason sales are likely to continue to rise while the customers for withdrawn brands are mopped up by the the survivors.（由于这个原因，幸存下来的公司吃进这些推出品牌的顾客，销售额可能继续上升） Soon, however, sales volume will level off （销售总量趋于平稳）for one or both reasons: the market has become saturated; （市场已经变得饱和）for production purposes, it is usually better to maintain volume at a fairly steady level.（或者为了生产的目的，把销售量维持在一个相对平稳的水平上通常更好）
The last stage is decline, which means there is a decline in demand for the product. Customers begin to get tired of the product. For virtually all producers, obsolescence sets in inevitably as new products start their own life cycle and replace the old ones.（由于新的产品开始了他们自己的生命周期并且取代旧的产品，产品的过时报废时不可避免的） Deciding what stage a product has reached in its life cycle can be more difficult when the sales figures are still rising. The problem then is to estimate how much longer they will continue to rise. Whether the product has to be abandoned often depends upon management abilities. Increased publicity is also an effective means of maintaining the sales.（加大产品的宣传力度也是维持销售的有效途径）
Product Life Cycle 产品生命周期
Pilot Model 实验模型，试选样品
Target Customer 目标客户
Test Marketing 试销
maturity 票据或证券等的到期时间，票据或证券等的到期，成熟
embryonic stage 胚胎期，萌芽状态
decide on 对。。。作出决定或决议
bring out 生产 制造 出版；鼓励，引导自由发言
catch on 变得流行；历届 查觉
place orders 提交订单，下订单
fall off 变少 降低
sell off 低价出售，甩卖，贱卖
try out 试行，试用；参加选拔，参加竞争性资格测试
mop up 完成做好；肃清 扫荡
level off 达到平衡或稳定
set in 开始发生或出现
chapter 11 Product Adaptation and Presentation 产品的调整与展示
An exporter must ensure that his product satisfies customer's needs, wants and likes. Many countries have products which are successful at home but have not won export sales. Such products can often be adapted to meet export market needs. As we mentioned in the previous lesson, this is called product adaptation.
Here is a pattern of checklist for product adaptation（适应性调整的一览表）:
1.Should the product be changed to meet the customer's preference? Because colors, fashions, tastes and social customs vary.
2.Should the way the product works be change?（产品的工作方式） A hand-operated machine might be adapted to work from an electric motor.（手工操作的机器可能需要改进，用电动机来带动）
3.Should the size or measurement be changed? Products may need adaptation to suit metric units or feet/ inches.（产品可能需要适应公制单位或英尺/英寸等英制单位）
4.Should the product be changed to suit different regulations? Health and safety regulations vary from country to country.
5.Should the product be packaged in a different way or in a different size and volume? Products may be sold in different units in different countries. Some countries use grams and kilograms and others use pounds and ounces, though there is a general move towards the metric systems.
If you are selling raw materials it is essential for your customer to know that, after processing , he can sell the product to his own customers and they will be well satisfied with it. This is equally true whether the commodity is, for example, unripened bananas （未熟的香蕉）, raw coffee beans or metal ore. If you are selling consumer goods, it gives your product extra appeal if your customer knows that is well made and will give reliable performance to the end-users, the consumer（最终客户即销售者）. He can buy from you with confidence, and is more likely to be prepared to pay a good price.
However well your product is designed, a customer cannot possibly choose it until he knows it is there. Products need to be brought to a customer's notice; this is the first purpose of product presentation. The second purpose of product presentation is to give the product a "brand image" so that it cannot be mistaken for anyone else's product. Competition in export markets is very fierce, and there are usually several companies selling similar products. All your work on product design will be wasted if the customer admires your product and then buys from another company by mistake. If your products are an undifferentiated commodity that looks much the same as the same commodity produced by other companies, it is even more important that the packaging makes it clear that you are the producer. A third purpose of product presentation is to identify the company that made the product. When a customer is pleased with what he's bought, he's very willing to look at other products from the same company. The good work done on the first product is helping to sell the next and the next and the next. （在第一种产品上所作的出色工作将有助于销售以后的其他各种产品）
product adaptation 产品调整
product presentation 产品展示
Heraclitus 赫拉克里特
metric systems 公制
consumer goods 生活消费品
brand image 品牌形象
If a company wants to build a lont-term position in export markets, it should decide on a product strategy. It must decide whether or not it must modify its present products or bring out new ones, and it must try to get a good idea of how often it will have to change its products.
It is important to know the distinction between products and product lines. （产品和产品种类）Product lines may go on forever, but products, like human beings, are mortal and progress in definite stages birth through maturity to death.（产品却像人类一样有终结的一天，并且沿着从诞生到成熟直至消亡的明确阶段发展）This is the product life cycle. A thorough understanding of product life cycle is doubly important to an exporter; where a product is in its life cycle on the domestic market may vary a great deal from its possible position in export markets.（一种产品在国内市场所处生命周期的阶段与它在出口市场上可能所处的阶段会大相径庭） A product, which is new at home, may be out-of-date in a foreign market. Conversely, a familiar product at home may differ considerably from one export market to another. Let us examine the life cycle for a specific product, a new fashion dress: the style is designed and samples are made up; the samples are shown to a small circle of adventurous stores, which placed small orders; （这些商店接着提交小批量的订单）the fashion catches on and other stores place orders; soon all dress shops want to stock the new style. Several other manufacturers decide to imitate it ; and once nearly all women are wearing the fashion it ceases to be novel, sales quickly fall off and shops begin to sell off the remaining stocks at a reduced price.
Almost all products eventually pass through four stages in a given market in terms of sales and profitability. Those four stages are: introduction stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage. In Figure 20.1, we can see clearly how the product life cycle develops and how sales and profits change during each stage of its life cycle. However, what we need to note is that products move through the cycle at different speeds, which can vary even with a product category.
The first stage is introduction, which means the product is launched or enters the market and sales rise slowly. It has gone through the embryonic stages of idea evaluation, pilot models and test marketing, broad marketing aim.（它经历了最初的酝酿（胚胎）期，诸如该产品设计观念的评估试选样品和试销等。更大的销售目标是劝说尽可能多的目标客户首次尝试使用这种产品）
The second stage is growth, which means the product is becoming accepted and sales. At this stage, competitors enter the market in large numbers if the profit outlook is particularly attractive. But the arrival of competiting manufacturers tends to legitimize the product in customer's eyes. （可是，这种竞争性生产者的加入往往也是该产品在顾客眼里变得合法化）Exporters should shift to a "buy-my-brand" rather than a "try-my-product" promotional strategy.（这是，出口商应该把它的促销策略从“使用我的产品”及时转变为“购买我的品牌”）
The third stage is maturity, which means sales growth starts to slow down. In the early part of this stage, the last of the unsuccessful competing brands will probably withdraw from the market. For this reason sales are likely to continue to rise while the customers for withdrawn brands are mopped up by the the survivors.（由于这个原因，幸存下来的公司吃进这些推出品牌的顾客，销售额可能继续上升） Soon, however, sales volume will level off （销售总量趋于平稳）for one or both reasons: the market has become saturated; （市场已经变得饱和）for production purposes, it is usually better to maintain volume at a fairly steady level.（或者为了生产的目的，把销售量维持在一个相对平稳的水平上通常更好）
The last stage is decline, which means there is a decline in demand for the product. Customers begin to get tired of the product. For virtually all producers, obsolescence sets in inevitably as new products start their own life cycle and replace the old ones.（由于新的产品开始了他们自己的生命周期并且取代旧的产品，产品的过时报废时不可避免的） Deciding what stage a product has reached in its life cycle can be more difficult when the sales figures are still rising. The problem then is to estimate how much longer they will continue to rise. Whether the product has to be abandoned often depends upon management abilities. Increased publicity is also an effective means of maintaining the sales.（加大产品的宣传力度也是维持销售的有效途径）
Product Life Cycle 产品生命周期
Pilot Model 实验模型，试选样品
Target Customer 目标客户
Test Marketing 试销
maturity 票据或证券等的到期时间，票据或证券等的到期，成熟
embryonic stage 胚胎期，萌芽状态
decide on 对。。。作出决定或决议
bring out 生产 制造 出版；鼓励，引导自由发言
catch on 变得流行；历届 查觉
place orders 提交订单，下订单
fall off 变少 降低
sell off 低价出售，甩卖，贱卖
try out 试行，试用；参加选拔，参加竞争性资格测试
mop up 完成做好；肃清 扫荡
level off 达到平衡或稳定
set in 开始发生或出现
chapter 11 Product Adaptation and Presentation 产品的调整与展示
An exporter must ensure that his product satisfies customer's needs, wants and likes. Many countries have products which are successful at home but have not won export sales. Such products can often be adapted to meet export market needs. As we mentioned in the previous lesson, this is called product adaptation.
Here is a pattern of checklist for product adaptation（适应性调整的一览表）:
1.Should the product be changed to meet the customer's preference? Because colors, fashions, tastes and social customs vary.
2.Should the way the product works be change?（产品的工作方式） A hand-operated machine might be adapted to work from an electric motor.（手工操作的机器可能需要改进，用电动机来带动）
3.Should the size or measurement be changed? Products may need adaptation to suit metric units or feet/ inches.（产品可能需要适应公制单位或英尺/英寸等英制单位）
4.Should the product be changed to suit different regulations? Health and safety regulations vary from country to country.
5.Should the product be packaged in a different way or in a different size and volume? Products may be sold in different units in different countries. Some countries use grams and kilograms and others use pounds and ounces, though there is a general move towards the metric systems.
If you are selling raw materials it is essential for your customer to know that, after processing , he can sell the product to his own customers and they will be well satisfied with it. This is equally true whether the commodity is, for example, unripened bananas （未熟的香蕉）, raw coffee beans or metal ore. If you are selling consumer goods, it gives your product extra appeal if your customer knows that is well made and will give reliable performance to the end-users, the consumer（最终客户即销售者）. He can buy from you with confidence, and is more likely to be prepared to pay a good price.
However well your product is designed, a customer cannot possibly choose it until he knows it is there. Products need to be brought to a customer's notice; this is the first purpose of product presentation. The second purpose of product presentation is to give the product a "brand image" so that it cannot be mistaken for anyone else's product. Competition in export markets is very fierce, and there are usually several companies selling similar products. All your work on product design will be wasted if the customer admires your product and then buys from another company by mistake. If your products are an undifferentiated commodity that looks much the same as the same commodity produced by other companies, it is even more important that the packaging makes it clear that you are the producer. A third purpose of product presentation is to identify the company that made the product. When a customer is pleased with what he's bought, he's very willing to look at other products from the same company. The good work done on the first product is helping to sell the next and the next and the next. （在第一种产品上所作的出色工作将有助于销售以后的其他各种产品）
product adaptation 产品调整
product presentation 产品展示
Heraclitus 赫拉克里特
metric systems 公制
consumer goods 生活消费品
brand image 品牌形象
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