Final answer:
Social marketing, with its focus on emotional connection and branding, should guide marketing activities across a product's lifecycle. It includes using flagship symbols, personalized advertising, and product differentiation to maintain consumer attention and loyalty. The approach also considers the balance between continuous product innovation and sustainable consumption patterns.
Step-by-step explanation:
The marketing concept that should drive and inform the marketing activities associated with monitoring the product lifecycle is social marketing. Social marketing leverages symbols and branding to evoke emotional responses and motivate behavior. For instance, Pride using "flagship" species in campaigns to foster a sense of pride and care for the local environment, is a practice that could be applied to product lifecycle monitoring to capture attention and promote sustainable consumer practices.
In the context of a product lifecycle, companies need to consider how a product matures and declines over time. Strategies such as advertising, brand positioning, product differentiation, and creating an emotional connection through branding can help maintain customer loyalty. In addition, slogans and targeted messaging that resonate with consumers on a personal level can make a lasting impact that extends throughout the different stages of the product lifecycle.
A continuous cycle of product "improvement" driven by an army of designers and marketers is necessary to stay competitive, yet this can lead to a consumer treadmill where durable and long-lasting products are replaced by newer versions, prompting questions around sustainability and consumerism.