The Impact of Logistics on the Demand for Mature Industrial Products

Managers usually dread the prospect of dealing with products in the mature stage of their life cycle. At this stage, products become generic in nature leading to little gain from promotion and the extensive use of discounts and other price‐sensitive competitive ploys because of intensive competition. Ultimately, profits fall drastically. Frequently overlooked as an element in the overall marketing strategy is what we call the Logistics Mix. This article presents a model that includes dimensions of logistics service that are hypothesised to impact on the demand for industrial products, and it suggests that there are advantages in competing on these dimensions.