Final answer:
Advertising is key during the introduction stage of the product life cycle to differentiate products and increase demand, while pricing strategies become more important during the maturity stage to maintain competitiveness.
Step-by-step explanation:
Advertising is crucial in the product life cycle, particularly during the introduction and maturity stages. During the introduction stage, advertising helps differentiate a product from competitors, aiming to make a firm's perceived demand curve more inelastic or to increase the demand for the product. This can result in higher prices or greater sales quantities. The correct answer to the student's question is: Advertising plays a major role in the introduction stage of the product life cycle, and pricing plays a major role in maturity. Therefore, the answer is a. Introduction, Pricing.