Extension Strategy: Definition, Brief Explanation

Extension strategy is about how you extend the life of a product. You adopt it during the maturity phase to avoid decline.

A product life cycle consists of five stages:

1. Development
2. Introduction
3. Growth
4. Mature
5. Decline

In the mature stage, sales have peaked, but the percentage of growth has been slower. That usually goes into a decline phase.

Instead of going into a decline phase, you might try to extend the life of the cycle. Some options that you can use to extend the product life cycle are:

• Rebranding
• Discounted prices to attract new customers
• New markets for current products, for example, sell them abroad
• Introducing a new version, for instance, version 4.0 and later version 5.0.
• Changing usage, for example, in the past, cereal products are for breakfast. Still, you can promote it as eating cereal for different times of the day.