A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Award of a Masters of Business Administration in Corporate Management
(MBA-CM) of Mzumbe University
This study examined advertising and the sales of products during different stages of product life cycle. The Coca Cola Kwanza Company was purposefully selected by this study and Coca Cola beverages were used as the products for critical examination. In order to realize the stated rationale, three specific objectives were to be achieved, that is; to analyze advertising strategies adopted to ensure the sales of the products during different stages of product life cycle, to examine the reasons behind the changes of advertising frequencies of the products during different stages of product life cycle and to investigate the reasons behind the changes of advertising weight of the product during different stages of product life cycle. The primary data was collected by administering questionnaires to 50 employees of the company who were primarily involved in advertising, sales and distribution of the product while secondary data was collected by reviewing relevant company’s documents. The study discovered that each stage of the product life cycle, the product required a tailored advertising strategies so as to enhance the sales. For instance, during market entry stage, all 50 (100.0 per cent) respondents agreed that suitable advertising strategy were the ones which consider complete ignorance of consumers about the product. Also, the reasons behind changing advertising frequencies were determined by the stage of the product itself. For instance, during market entry stage, all 50 (100.0 per cent) respondents agreed that advertising frequencies were high due to complete ignorance of consumers about the product. Furthermore, it was found that the reasons behind the changes of advertising weight of the products included influencing the level of sales of the product in different stages of life cycle. The conclusion drawn by this study is that, advertisement has different impact on the sales of the as the product moves from one stage of the product life cycle to another. So, if the company is to maintain or increases the sales of the products during different stages of product life cycle, changes in some aspects of advertising such as advertising strategies, advertising frequencies and advertising weight should be considered.