Successful products don’t often stay at the top for long. What usually happens is that they follow a life cycle, from introduction to the point where they are overtaken by newer, better alternatives. If you understand where your product is in its life cycle, you can market it in a way that will maximize sales.

When you introduce a product, for example, you need to invest in promotion to build awareness (such as free samples) and target your marketing at people who influence others to buy.

As the product’s popularity grows, sales will increase and your unit costs will go down. But competitors will emerge to grab a share of the profits to be made. Your marketing objective will now be to maintain and increase your market share – for example, by improving your offer and making it more widely available.

Your sales will peak and competition will heat up as the product reaches maturity. At this point, stressing the way your offer differs from your rivals’ can help you maintain margins and market share.

Finally, sales will fall as new products emerge. At this stage, you should focus on controlling costs and boosting efficiency.

Delivering the right products or services at the right cost with strong marketing support will ensure you’re competitive. To stay competitive, you’ll need to keep your offer fresh – that means keeping up with trends in your market, emerging technology and refinements to existing products.