Regal Marine

A Boat’s Life Cycle

Trident University International

Life Cycle for Regal Marine Products

A product life cycle generally consists of 4 stages; Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. The introduction stage is the most expensive as this is when most of the capital expenditure is paid out. During the growth stage the product is introduced to the market and sales and production increase. Maturity is reached when sales begin to steadily decrease for any number of reasons (competitors have flooded the market) and the profit margin starts to decrease. The decline stage is titled appropriately as this is the stage the product is discontinued, phased out and/or replaced. Normally these stages begin after the product is designed and developed during an “incubation stage” for most product life cycles (ASWATHAPPA & SHRIDHARABHAT, 2009).

At Regal Marine the design and development is the first stage. Regal Marine anticipates the inevitable fourth stage of each model of their product’s life cycle. Anticipation keeps Regal developing new and improved designs with better options and updated features to create a constant flow of new models in the pipe line. Their product and development engineers are constantly reaching out to customers, dealers and suppliers for insight of what works best, for the highest value and most cost effective innovations (Regal Marine Industries, Inc., 2014).

Staying competitive

Regal uses a concept called “growth maintenance” with nearly 2 dozen active product lines. The concept is for product life cycles to overlap, so that when one product is in decline, the next is in growth (Gerhard, 2002). As mentioned earlier the Introduction stage is the most costly; by overlapping product life cycle stages the burden is offset with product in the growth and maturity stages. Regal stays competitive by staying in touch with customers, dealers, suppliers and technology. Regal strategizes aggressively and expedites implementing the newest ideas...