Bukhara State University

Strategies of Product Mix:

The following strategies are generally employed by the producer of the product:
(a) Expansion of Product Mix:
Under expansion of product mix, a company may expand its present product mix by increasing the number of product lines or increasing the number of product items. It is also known as product diversification. The diversification may be concentric diversification, horizontal diversification or con­glomerate diversification.
(b) Contraction of Product Mix:
Under certain circumstances, the management has to drop the production of non-profitable prod­ucts. The company’s product line managers periodically review items for product line contraction. Sometimes the company may either eliminate an entire line or simply the assortment within a line. After that, the manager should concentrate on producing the higher margin items.
(c) Alteration of Existing Products:
Instead of developing a new product, the management should take a fresh look at the company’s existing products. Very often improving an established product can be more profitable than introducing a new one. The alterations may be introduced in the colour, design, packaging, etc.
(d) Positioning the Product:
Positioning is an attempt to distinguish the particular product from its competitors along real dimensions in order to be the preferred product for certain market segments. Positioning aims to help customers to know the real differences between competing products so that they can match themselves and thereby satisfy their needs best.
(e) Trading Up and Trading Down:
Trading up refers to the adding of higher priced and more prestigious products to their existing line in the hope of increasing the sales of existing low priced products. Trading down refers to the adding of lower priced item to its lines of prestigious products in the hope that people who cannot afford the original products will want to buy the new one, because it carries some of the status of the higher priced product.