Avatar, 3D TV and the product lifecycle…

The science fiction film Avatar which was written and directed by James Cameron has been in the press a lot recently and has had some good write ups by some of the critics. It is an incredibly successful film and today it was announced that it has overtaken Titanic to become the highest grossing movie of all time with worldwide takings of nearly USD2 billion since its premier in London in mid December last year.

Last night I decided to go and see it to see what all the fuss was about. I must admit that I was impressed. The special effects were excellent and with the film being shown in 3D it certainly did create an impact.

3D films have been around for a number of years now and started back in the 1950s with early prototypes of 3D movies including such classics as the 1950s monster movie the “Creature from the Black Lagoon”! Technology has progressed a lot since then though and at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas there were a number of firms presenting their latest 3D televisions.

This is a useful example of what we would find in the product lifecycle. If you go back over the history of televisions you will find a series of lifecycles. The timeline of televisions has gone from Black & White, through “traditional” colour, to plasma and LCD.

Although the product lifecycle will vary on a geographic region by region basis, in a lot of countries the lifecycle of the “traditional style colour TV” is in decline whilst the lifecycle of the LCD TV is in the growth or maturity stages. What about the new 3D TVs that are being launched this year? It’s safe to say that these are in the introduction stage. As a result the marketing mix of these TVs will be different from the other stages. “Place” for example will be at a limited number of locations and as for “Price” then it’s not rocket science to guess that they will be priced at a premium above the other types of TV that are at different stages of their lifecycles!