| Product mix | The set of all products offered for sale by a company.
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| Breadth | The number of product lines offered for sale by a firm.
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| Depth | The relative variety of sizes, colors, and models offered within a product line.
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| Product line | A broad group of products intended for essentially similar uses and having similar physical characteristics.
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| Product-mix expansion | A strategy in which a firm increases the depth within a particular line and/or the number of lines it offers to consumers.
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| Line extension | One form of product-mix expansion in which a company adds a similar item to an existing product line with the same brand name.
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| Mix extension | One form of product-mix expansion in which a company adds a new product line to its present assortment.
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| Product alteration | A strategy of improving an existing product.
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| Product-mix contraction | A strategy in which a firm either eliminates an entire line or simplifies the assortment within a line.
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| Trading up | A product-line strategy wherein a company adds a higherpriced product to a line in order to attract a broader market and, through its added prestige, helps the sale of its existing lower-priced products.
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| Trading down | A product-line strategy wherein a company adds a lowerpriced product to a line to reach a market that cannot afford the higherpriced items or that see them as too expensive.
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| Product life cycle | The aggregate demand over an extended period of time for all brands comprising a generic product category.
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| Introduction stage | The first part of a product life cycle during which a generic product category is launched into the market in a full-scale marketing program. Same as pioneering stage.
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| Growth stage | The second part of a product life cycle during which the sales and profits of a generic product category rise and competitors enter the market, causing profits to decline near the end of this part of the cycle.
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| Maturity stage | The third part of a product life cycle during which the sales of a generic product category continue to increase (but at a decreasing rate), profits decline largely because of price competition, and some firms leave the market.
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| Decline stage | The fourth, and final, part of a product life cycle during which the sales of a generic product category drop and most competitors abandon the market.
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| Fad | A product or style that becomes immensely popular nearly overnight and then falls out of favor with consumers almost as quickly.
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| First-mover advantage | Strategy of entering a market during the introductory stage of a product in order to build a dominant position; also called pioneer advantage.
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| Product abandonment | A decision and subsequent action by a firm to drop a product that has insufficient and/or declining sales and lacks profits.
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| Planned obsolescence | A strategy that is intended to make an existing product out of date and thus to increase the market for replacement products. There are two forms: technological and style.
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| Technological obsolescence | A form of planned obsolescence in which significant technical improvements result in a more effective product. Same as functional obsolescence.
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| Style obsolescence | A form of planned obsolescence in which superficial characteristics of a product are altered so that the new model is easily differentiated from the previous model and people become dissatisfied with it. Same as fashion obsolescence and psychological obsolescence.
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| Style | A distinctive manner of presentation or construction in any art, product, or endeavor.
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| Fashion | A style that is popularly accepted and purchased by successive groups of people over a reasonably long period of time.
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| Fashion-adoption process | A series of buying waves by which a style becomes popular in a market; similar to diffusion of an innovation.
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| Fashion cycle | Wavelike movements representing the introduction, rise, popular acceptance, and decline of the market's acceptance of a style.
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| Trickle-down theory | In fashion adoption, a fashion cycle that flows downward through several socioeconomic levels.
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| Trickle-across theory | In fashion adoption, a fashion cycle that moves horizontally and simultaneously within several socioeconomic levels.
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| Trickle-up theory | In fashion adoption, a fashion cycle in which a style first becomes popular with lower socioeconomic levels and then flows upward to become popular among higher levels.
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