[MUSIC] Hi, we are now going to get into the marketing mix element and we begin with the first of the four piece, which is product strategy. So let me begin with the definition of what is product strategy in a marketing plan? So the product strategy is basically everything that can be offered to the market to satisfy a want or need. I mean, don't be confused, products can be anything, okay. Products can include physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, ideas, information, whatever. The product strategy is the way the product will be designed, offered and delivered to the customer. Usually in the product strategy, we also include the branding as strategy. And we will speak about it later, because products and brands are basically two different things. Not all the products are brands, but all the brands come with the product usually. Basically, there are two ways of defining the product strategy in your marketing plan. Sometimes, you're going to have the product defined, okay, and then you find a segment of individuals willing to buy the product. So in this case, we'll go from product to target segment. And sometimes it's the other way around. So basically, we have identify a target segment where we can growth and we define a product specific for them, okay. So basically, this is going to be like a two-way direction. In some marketing plans we will see, we will go from target to product, and in other marketing plans, we will have the product already and we will try and identify a target segment where we can grow. For example, in the case of the Nissan LEAF, that's something you would use for your assessment. They product will be a given. And in that case, you would need to find a target segment where you can actually sell the product, okay. Another important aspect in the product strategy is knowing well where is the product in the life cycle? We mentioned this already, but I would like to take the opportunity now to discuss a little bit the product's life cycle curve, okay. So as you know, products usually are going to follow different stages in their life cycle. So the way to do this is basically, we draw a curve, okay, where we put an axis here and the horizontal axis here. And here, we're going to put sales, okay, product sales, okay. And here, we're going to put time, okay. So usually, the situation is that the product is going to follow a curve like this. There's an introduction stage. There is a growth stage. There is a maturity stage. And usually, there is a stage of decline, okay. So we call this introduction. We call this growth. We call this stage, long stage maturity and the last one is going to be the decline, okay. Why is this life cycle curve interesting? Because basically, usually a product follows this curve, and the interesting thing is that different stages in the life cycle are going to require different strategies, okay. And that's why in the marketing plan, we try and identify who are we. For example, if we talk about the Nissan LEAF case, probably there's no doubt, in Germany, they are here, the very beginning, okay. They are introducing the brand. For example, products like this one that we're dealing with the MOOC, a Massive Online Open Courses. What is this industry? What is the product life cycle? They are here, okay, at the very beginning, they're in the introduction stage. They are growing a lot, okay. So consider this analysis, because it's interesting for your product strategy and in general, for your marketing plan. [MUSIC]