Marketers must consider the relationships of all the products sold by the organization. to manage the product mix, marketers may modify, discontinue, or add products and product lines. Marketers may modify any aspect of a product, including features of the product, the packaging, or services provided to the customer. Modification is important when a product is still profitable, but environmental or internal changes make the current product less than optimal.
Marketers must make decisions regarding discontinuing products. Deciding to discontinue a product should be based on a set of criteria. discontinuing a product may mean dissatisfied customers and employee layoffs.
Another important decision that must be made relates to adding products. An important source of sales growth is adding new products to the product mix. The organization may do this by developing products or by acquiring the rights to market products developed elsewhere. New products may be line extensions or they may be a whole new product.
