Product Management
Study Unit: Product Development and PLC Strategies
MRK 1603
For a product of your choice, discuss the characteristics of each stage of the product lifecycle and explain the marketing strategy you would implement.
Over 2000 versions in 111 countries and 43 languages, Hasbro had sold 275 million Monopoly games worldwide.
The Monopoly Game is named after the economic concept of monopoly: the domination of a market by a single provider. Just right after Chess which holds the 1st place, Monopoly is ranked as the 2nd best board game of all time. Monopoly was patented in 1935 and albeit still making a steady cash-cow, Monopoly is well in its maturity stage and in the recent years it is seen also peaking into the decline stage.
Figure 1 : Lizzie Maggies patent sketch granted on
January 5th 1904
The Introduction stage of monopoly aint that easy to trace down as it goes back to the early 1900’s. Monopoly as we all know it today has not been like this since its start, Monopoly had diverse owners who patented it before parker brothers ‘’Hasbro’’ in 1935 made it their own. History for the monopoly started long before parker Brothers or it’s ‘’Inventor’’ Charles Darrow. The truth goes back to 1904 , when Elizabeth Maggie Came granted a patent for a board game she called ‘’The Landlords Game’’.
In 1935 Monopoly once again came to attention to Parker Brothers, as sales now were increasing Parker Brothers Decided to buy Monopoly. Parker Brothers wanted to create a monopoly with the board game monopoly and they bought all patents of similar games to it.
Figure 2
Charles Darrow’s sketch for Monopoly
Patent. Granted in December 1935.
Parker Brothers started producing the game from this year onwards. It was in the year 1936 that Parker Brothers announced the production of four further versions to
References: About Hasbro . 2014. About Hasbro . [ONLINE] Available at:http://csr.hasbro.com/csr/about-hasbro. Monopoly - Monopoly Wiki Monopoly History. 2014. Monopoly History. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_US/discover/about.cfm. 76 Best Board Games of All Time - How many have you played? . 2014. 76 Best Board Games of All Time - How many have you played? . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.listchallenges.com/92-best-board-games-of-all-time. Books Philip E. Orbanes, 2007. Monopoly: The World 's Most Famous Game--And How It Got That Way. Reprint Edition. Da Capo Press. Philip E. Orbanes, 2003. The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit. Edition. Harvard Business Review Press. Ralph Anspach, 2000. The Billion Dollar Monopoly (r) Swindle. 2 Edition. Xlibris.