Dynamics and strategies of product tangibility in product life cycles

There are many deficiencies in Product Life Cycle (PLC) model that have been raised by researchers throughout the last four decades. Fundamentally, the PLC model is a descriptive model instead of a prescriptive model. Marketers and product managers can not effectively apply the PLC model to prescribe proper actions to improve the market performance of a product.;This thesis proposes a method of dynamic product content analysis by examining the tangibility mix of components in a product. As product contents grow from initially rich in intangible elements such as services to eventually rich in tangible elements such as goods, the current stage of the "product life" can be indicated by the current degree of tangibility in the product.;The dynamics of this intangible to tangible evolution is modeled in this thesis. This model indicates that the product revenue generated is an increasing function of the degree of tangibility, however, the product profit is a bell-shaped function of degree of tangibility. The product profit peaks at an optimal degree of tangibility of a product that is neither totally tangible nor totally intangible. The product profit is sub-optimal for both overly tangible and overly intangible products.;Traditional product marketing and management strategies and new strategies based on the tangibility analysis are discussed in this thesis. With the tangibility analysis, areas of corrective actions can then be identified to adjust the tangibility of the product in order to enhance the product and to revive and/or extend the life of the product.