case study product life cycle nestle

Ansoff Matrix: Use, Examples, Case Study, and Template – Comprehensive Overview

What is the ansoff matrix.

Ansoff matrix also known as corporate Ansoff matrix and product/market expansion grid is an essential business strategy tool used in business schools globally. The model focuses on providing a structure for business owners and marketers to strategize growth and risks of growth for their businesses. The Ansoff Matrix can be used during various stages of a product or a company life cycle making it one of the most versatile tools for managers. From Strategic Exercise to Market Planning,

Ansoff matrix helps marketers get opportunities to grow their sales and generate revenue by using different combinations of new markets and products and existing markets and products.

Ansoff Matrix finds wide usage in almost every field of management. Ansoff Matrix also helps in identifying potential growth areas and areas where management should retract, making it an important tool for business prioritization as well. The universality of the tool makes it a favorite of strategic consultants who carve out new and niche strategies for the organization. in this blog, we will discuss in detail the history, usage, and advantages of a case study.

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History of Ansoff matrix

H. Igor Ansoff, an applied mathematician, and business manager developed the Ansoff model. The matrix was first published in Harvard Business Review in 1957 under an article called “strategies for diversification”. In his model, Ansoff has hinted at some of the strongest and weakest business strategies. 

According to Ansoff, there are only two approaches to developing a growth strategy, diversifying Product Growth and Market Growth. 

 Uses of Ansoff matrix

Ansoff matrix can be used to assess the different strategies for business growth also known as the four quadrants of the Ansoff model. The four quadrants are: 

Market penetration

Product development, market development.

• Diversification 

In the first quadrant, market penetration is the safest with minimum risk. This strategy focuses on increasing sales of existing products or offerings in the markets you are already familiar with. This can be achieved by:

• Lowering your prices or giving discounts
• Promoting your business on a larger scale
• Buying or obtaining a rival’s company in the very market
• Changing  opening hours for stores
• Focusing on product refinement

For a better understanding, let us take an example: Popular brands like coca cola are known to focus a lot on getting their brand distributed among the right target audience. They spend a lot of money on getting help from supermarkets, sports stadiums, diners, etc. to penetrate the market and get their brand sold on a higher scale.

In the second quadrant, product development is riskier than market penetration. This strategy focuses on selling new products in the existing markets. You can also modify the products or extend the range of existing products. The strategy also focuses on the needs and welfare of target customers and markets. This can be achieved by:

• Making investments in the research and development of new products.
• Buying someone else’s products and obtaining the rights to claim them as one’s own.
• Acquiring the rights to build someone else’s products
• Creating new packaging for the existing products

The strategy also focuses on the needs and welfare of target customers and markets. A good example of product development can be taken from the pharmaceutical companies that have been actively investing in the research and development of new drugs. 

Market development or the third quadrant carries furthermore risks. The strategy focuses on sales of existing offerings in new markets and among different types of customers. This can be accomplished by:

• Promoting your offerings in different customer segments
• Targeting markets in new areas of the country
• Foreign marketing
• Taking the help of online sales

Market development strategy is not that risky if the new markets are similar to the previous ones that you are familiar with. This can be better understood with an example, such as: google started in California, United States but extended its business to Chinese markets.

Diversification

In the last quadrant, diversification is the riskiest of all. It focuses on taking new products into new markets . Even with high risks, diversification can sometimes procure greater rewards. This strategy can be of two types, related and unrelated. 

• Related diversification : there remains a connection between the new offerings and the existing firms/businesses.
• Unrelated diversification : there are no connections between the businesses and the new offerings. 

The strategy proves to give an edge in a way that, if one business fails to flourish, the others will remain unaffected. Let us take two examples to understand each of these diversifications better. 

A shoemaker making shoe with leather decides to make belts and bags instead. This is a case of related diversification as the products are different but the raw material is common for both. Another example can be the company Samsung. Samsung offers a variety of products from mobile phones, laptops, and air conditioners to hotel chains, insurance, and chemicals. This example is of unrelated diversification. Even if the hotel chains don’t return promising results, mobile phone sales of Samsung won’t be affected.

Advantages/Benefits of using Ansoff Matrix

Simplicity : Ansoff Matrix is a very simple yet powerful tool for visualization for managers. Many managers depend on Ansoff Matrix to find the right strategy for the organization

Easier for brainstorming : Unlike other strategic tools, Ansoff Matrix is perfect for a brainstorming session.

Management Summary : The final outcome of a strategic exercise is often very complex. With Ansoff Matrix, it is relatively easier to find a management summary easily. It also becomes easier for an organization to communicate new or changed strategies down the line.

Universality : The Ansoff matrix is very universal. It can be used in a wide range of problems ranging from consulting to new business expansion to strategic marketing problems. It is widely used in assessing the current strategy and finding what’s needed to go to derived strategy

Ansoff Matrix: Case Studies

Founded by Henri Nestle, the famous multinational company, Nestle is one of the world’s largest food and drinks processing companies. Nestle was started in 1866 as a small firm known to produce infant milk and now it has earned the name of a business with the most winning marketing strategy. It is headquartered in Switzerland. The products the company offers are diverse, such as beverages, ice creams, baby food, pet food, bottled water, etc.

For over 150 years, their business has been flourishing. The company also possesses a special focus on sustainable development. They have the largest research and development network in the food and beverage industry which makes them stand out. With the tagline “Good Food, Good Life”, the brand has created a catalyst to promote its sales. 

Nestle is a multibillion-dollar company with a market capitalization of more than 247 billion USD. As of 2021, the brand has generated a revenue of around CHF 87.10 billion. Nestle has made use of Ansoff Matrix successfully over the years to become the leading international food processing brand in the world. Let us have a look at the strategic analysis of the Ansoff Matrix of Nestle.

Market penetration by Nestle

For smooth market penetration, Nestle uses its existing products in the existing markets to grow their sales. They focus on aggressive marketing to increase purchases. Nestle uses various tactics to grow their sales such as manufacturing different packaging sizes to give customers a wider choice of selection, offering discounts on larger purchases, lowering prices on certain products, etc.

They are also known to acquire similar brands and companies to reduce competition. Nestle uses promotion strategies like encouraging people to purchase their products by including the customers’ pain points in their advertisements. The brand also keeps on introducing new flavors to keep their customers interested in their products.

Product development by Nestle

Nestle launches new products in the existing markets almost regularly. For instance, they first manufactured chocolates that many customers liked. They later went one step ahead and introduced ice creams using those chocolate flavors.

To promote these ice creams they kept the prices low, advertised more, and used different channels to increase the reach of their products. Once the ice creams were a hit, they adjusted the prices, improved the packaging, and also introduced more variants of the product. All this helped them generate revenue from the ice creams and grew their sales. This is how Nestle focuses on its product development

Market development by Nestle

Nestle uses exciting products in new markets for market development. They expand consistently to new geographical areas where they haven’t marketed yet. They make sure that the products are readily available with the help of different distribution channels to help them increase their reach to the local markets. For this very goal, they also advertise the products through the regional media. They also focus on making the products affordable, targeting the customers’ needs, and introducing variants according to the preference of customers from that particular region. For example, India has more variants of Maggi instant noodles that aren’t available elsewhere. 

Diversification by nestle

Nestle regularly launches new products in new markets for diversification. The new products can be related to the existing range of products or can be a different range itself. For example, Nestle offers baby food but they can also launch diapers and other baby products in new markets to grow their sales. Of course, it takes a strategic plan to execute such a stunt with so much risk. But with such marketing understanding, Nestle rarely disappoints.

Coca-Cola is a giant in the beverage industry. It serves almost every continent in the world.

Samrat is a Delhi-based MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. He is a Strategy, AI, and Marketing Enthusiast and passionately writes about core and emerging topics in Management studies. Reach out to his LinkedIn for a discussion or follow his Quora Page

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Nestle: SWOT Analysis, BCG Matrix, Marketing Mix, & Overall Strategy Analysis

This case study provides a thorough Nestle strategy analysis. It contains the marketing mix of Nestle, the company’s competitive advantage, internal and external environment analysis, and other details. Read on to learn the firm’s global strategy!

Nestle Strategy Analysis

Product life cycle, nestle: bcg matrix.

• Brief Description of Porter’s Model
• The Component That Normally Makes Up a Mission Statement

External Environment Analysis of Nestle

Nestle: internal environment, nestle: swot analysis.

• Key External Drivers
• Managing Growth and Profitability

The marketing planning processes incorporate 4 stages including the analysis stage, planning stage, implementation stage, and monitoring stage. The analysis stage covers the pertinent information required for framing plans and making decisions. This comprises of the present market condition, the available products of an organization, the viable situation, as well as the SWOT analysis.

The results of these analyses form the basis of the second stage, which is the planning stage. Here, marketing executives are completely conscious of the elements in the institution’s present situation that are likely to affect its marketing activities and thus will consider commercial intents of this information to project marketing strategies and assess strategic options. The implementation and monitoring stage involves the execution of plans and management of plans respectively (Dibb 72).

In Nestle, the product life cycle is a critical provision used as a marketing tool. It denotes how Nestle’s products are introduced, grow, mature, and decline in the market.

One of the most famous management tools is the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix. It is dependent upon the product life cycle theory. To build a lasting value conception, Nestle must establish a portfolio of its products for high-growth and low growth alongside market penetration. This concept is used to find out what priorities should have to be provided in the product portfolio of any business unit. The BCG matrix has two dimensions. The first is relative market share and the other is market growth. The fundamental concept behind it is that if a product has a large market share or if the market of the product increases rapidly, then it is considered the best for a particular corporation.

In Nestle’s context, BCG Matrix is staged to analyze the two market dimensions i.e. market share and market growth. The Nestle has always registered bigger market shares and rapid market growth. The BCG Matrix places Nestle’s commodities into 4 discrete groups:

Brief description of Porter’s Model

Porter’s Five Forces are useful in grasping the position of a business venture. Nestle Corporation can easily plan its business strategies in a manner that evades losses. These factors include; supplier power, buyer power, competitive rivalry, the threat of substitution, and the threat of making a new entry. In analyzing Nestle using porter’s five forces, these factors are evident as stipulated in the case study provided.

For example, the threat from new entrants into the industry is applicable in this quarter. Nestle and other existing firms are threatened by the entrance of other competitive rivals. Additionally, there is considerable rivalry from the existing firms in the global market. Other international companies like Kraft Foods, ConAgra, Danone, Heinzand, and Mondelez International, Inc. among others are threatening the survival of Nestle in the food and beverage industry.

Additionally, the bargaining power of buyers is evident in the industry due to competition. Customers go for cheap and reliable airline companies. Additionally, suppliers operating in the industry have equally fronted their bargaining power. The raw material suppliers usually change the cost of their products to suit their business interests. Another apparent force evident in the case is the availability of substitute products/services produced by companies like Kraft Foods, ConAgra, Danone, Heinzand, and Mondelez International, Inc. mentioned earlier. Consumers can resort to other substitute products if such needs arise (Kossowski 325).

The component that normally makes up a mission statement

The main purpose of the mission statement is to describe the aim of the business as well as the methodology that needs to be employed in the business plan. Creating a suitable mission statement forces an individual to consider deeply the major elements of his or her business and making the process a principal part of the business planning. Regardless of the kind of business an individual is involved in, the mission statement interconnects the objective of the business to both insides as well as people outside the organization. It explains what the business is and what it intends to do (Lewis and Trevitt 27).

PESTLE Analysis: Nestle

The PEST analysis is a very significant tool for analyzing the business’s external position.

Porter Five Forces Model of Nestle

Porter’s 5 forces are applied in the food and beverage industry concerning Nestle Company. For example, the threat from new entrants into the industry is applicable in this context. Nestle and other existing airline firms are threatened by the entrance of other competitive rivals. Second, there is also competition from Kraft Foods, ConAgra, Danone, Heinzand, and Mondelez International, Inc. among others. Thirdly, the bargaining power of buyers is evident in the industry due to competition. Customers go for cheap and reliable consumer goods. Forth, suppliers operating in the industry have equally fronted their bargaining power. The fifth is the availability of substitute products/services provided by Kraft Foods, ConAgra, and Danone companies among others.

Mckinsey 7s Framework: Nestle

From the case provided, Nestle can be subjected to Mckinsey’s 7s to assess its internal prominence and success in the food and beverage industry. The model relies on the ideology that, for an organization to perform exemplarily, the 7 elements (Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared Values, Skills, Style, and Staff) should be realigned for mutual reinforcement. On strategy, Nestle has adopted novel business strategies and advanced marketing provisions to widen its global market reach. Concurrently, the organizational structure is strategic enough to ensure proficiency within the organizational operations.

Also, Nestle’s systems are diverse to incorporate the aspects of technology and customer focus as evident from the case study provided. On shared values, the management of the organization incorporates other junior staff in the operations of the company.

The values of the organization are embraced to ensure customer focus. The company is also “skill” focused. For instance, the success of the company has involved various business strategies to counter numerous challenges encountered in the industry. Nestle’s “style” in the management, marketing, and customer focus is inclusive. The staffs are also committed to organizational progress.

Marketing Mix of Nestle

Identifying key external driver affecting nestle (inflation, legislation, and unemployment, etc).

There are numerous external; drivers affecting Nestle including inflation, unemployment, legal provisions, and unemployment. Inflation denotes a period of consistent increases in the price level of commodities. This results in the devaluation of the currency in the international markets. The level of inflation in a country has both direct and indirect influences on the economic development of that country. Positive changes in the economic development imply an improvement in the standards of living of the people from that particular region. Inflation often leads to slowed or negative economic development. The unemployment rate depicts the percentage of unemployed individuals within the labor force of a given country.

How Nestle managed growth and profitability through its marketing strategy

From the case study provide, Nestle has selected its specific target markets to serve them exceedingly. Customers demand goods, which satisfy their needs with the utmost precision and satisfaction. It is from this context that the entire business prospects lie in selecting the target market. Additionally, the need to execute efficient production mechanisms has always helped Nestle to deliver its business objectives as it addresses its targeted customers’ demands, growth, and profitability quests. Nestle strives to produce quality and affordable consumer products.

Nestle: Competitive Advantage

Nestle faces stiff competition from various companies globally. These include Kraft Foods, ConAgra, Danone, Heinzand, and Mondelez International, Inc. among others. Nonetheless, the company has developed and embraced critical competitive advantages to remain afloat in the 5the market. Nestle recognizes the significance of brand name as contemporary culture in its marketing provisions. The recognition/recall of a brand name is a fundamental aspect and a competitive advantage that can be used in judging.

Ansoff Matrix of Nestle

The use of Ansoff’s Growth matrix provides a credible planning tool that can help Nestle to establish its commodities and advance its marketing tactics. In this context, the company can market both new and/or existing commodities in the market. Opportunities incorporate emerging markets, well-developed competitive advantages, new technologies, novel products, and a high number of customers. Contextually, one distinctive opportunity prospected by Nestle is the rapid growth in the global market size. Strategically, the company should increase its production in response to the expected rise in demand to improve its profits. Customers prefer quality but affordable products.

Works Cited

Dibb, Sally. Marketing Planning: A Workbook for Marketing Managers . London: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.

Fortenberry, John. Health Care Marketing: Tools and Techniques . Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2010. Print.

Kossowski, Alexandra. Strategic Management: Porter’s Model of Generic Competitive Strategies – Theory and Analysis . München: GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2007. Print.

Lewis, Roger, and Roger Trevitt. Business: Vocational a Level . Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes, 2000. Print.

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Nestle Case Study: How Nestle’s Marketing Strategy Helped Them Grow as a Brand-2023

How many of you can answer this?

What is one common thing among Nescafe, Caregrow, KitKat, and Maggi?

Any guesses?

Yes, they are world-renowned brands, are familiar names in every household, and are products you must have consumed in your life at one point.

Anything other than these?

Yes. All these belong to one and only Nestle.

Be it in the fresh smell of hot coffee, a short break, or a bowl of tasty noodles- we cannot deny that all of us have enjoyed the awesomeness of Nestle’s products.

The brand has come a long way, crossing so many hurdles and achieving success, and it keeps growing.

Today, nestle is a brand that everyone is familiar with and uses in their day-to-day life.

Curious to know how?

In this Nestle case study, we are discussing everything about Nestle company, the marketing mix of Nestle, nestle competitors in India, marketing sales promotion techniques of nestle, and much more.

Nestle owns more than 2000 brands, from global stars to local ones.

How did Nestle achieve this level of success?

The brand has been in the market for more than 150 years, but many companies got this opportunity but failed. Nestle survived.

What is the secret of Nestle’s success?

This Nestle case study shows you a glimpse of nestle strategy and what digital marketing and social media strategies they followed that led to achieving this success.

So, let’s start by understanding a bit more about Nestle as a company.

Nestle had come a long way from when it entered the market by selling infant food in the 1860s with a motto to reduce child mortality rates.

Gradually, it became a renowned name in the wellness, healthy food, and pet care industry with its evergreen tagline, “Good Food, Good Life.”

Now, you must be thinking that how did Nestle reach this position? How can a company build a legacy which is so powerful that it has stood still since its birth?

The answer to this may lie in Nestle’s digital marketing and functional strategy.

Nestle Case study: Introduction of Nestle company

Nestle is a world-renowned manufacturer of packaged foods and beverages. It is the world’s largest food manufacturer operating in more than 186 countries and with over 2000 product brands.

The brand came to India in 1956. Since that time, from selling its first milk product in the 1960s to selling a wide variety of Nestle products in India, Nestle has grown exponentially in India.

With such exponential growth, Nestle’s umbrella keeps widening day by day. They are not only the largest food and beverage company in the world but also one of the best companies that have effortlessly collaborated with the online world and achieved immense success.

Gradually, Nestle India started making its presence felt in the FMCG sector, and now the brand enjoys a good market share in the food and beverage industry.

Being the most extensive food and beverage brand in terms of revenue, the pricing strategy of Nestle company, along with its targeting and positioning system, has played a vital role in reaching the position where it is currently.

Let us find out how it has served the Indian market with its products and services.

Nestle offers products in breakfast cereals, beverages, dairy, chocolates, nutritious foods like vending, and food services.

Popular food products like Kit Kat, Maggi, Milkmaid, Polo, and Nescafe come under Nestle’s products sold in India.

For more than 150 years, this iconic brand has been applying its expertise in Health, Nutrition, and Wellness to help its customers, pets, and families live a healthier and happier life.

However, they believe what is good today might not be suitable for tomorrow.

So, they keep exploring and focusing on pushing the boundaries to find more to experiment with foods, nutrition, and beverages.

Nestle unlocks the power of food to improve the quality of life for everyone, not just today but for generations to come.

The brand focuses on bringing more pleasure and enjoyment to the customers, how they can enable better health, and how they can make the best nutrition affordable to everyone.

Not just these, but the brand tries new ways to protect and improve natural resources.

History & Founder

Nestle was founded in 1905 by the union of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, set up in 1866 by brothers Charles and George Page and Farine Lactee Henri Nestle, founded by Henri Nestle in 1866.

Nestle originated in 1860 when two separate Swiss enterprises later created Nestle.

In the following decades, the two rival companies grew their businesses throughout the United States and Europe.

In 1866, George Page and Charles Page, brothers from Lee County, Illinois, USA, formed the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Cham, Switzerland. The company’s British operation started in 1873 at Chippenham, Wiltshire.

It was during the First World War when the organization grew significantly, and again during the Second World War, the company increased its offerings beyond its initial condensed milk and infant food products.

Nestle Case Study : Facts & Figures

Here are a few interesting numbers about Nestle that sets it apart from others.

• Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company.
• The brand has 276000 employees
• Nestle has acquired 30 companies

Nestle Case Study: Nestle competitors in India

Nestle has many major customer brands like Carnation, Kit Kat, Nestle-water, and Stouffers, among others.

Thirty of its brands netted more than $1 billion in earnings in the year 2010, which makes the company a vital force in the worldwide food and beverage industry.

With around 42 % of its sales being in North America, Nestle is one of the most geographically distinct companies in the food and beverage industry. It places it in a position that helps it edge over its competitors.

Its brands are well established in a considerable market share in leading economies like U.S. and Europe.

Danone and Unilever are important competitors for Nestle. These two are giants in the food and beverage industry, like Nestle.

In 2010, Unilever posted around 26% growth in yearly profits because of its accelerated sales in the food and beverage industry, especially ice cream, frozen food, tea-based beverages, and cooking products.

On the other hand, Danone stated around a 38 percent increase because of its improved share prices. In addition, a rise in its yogurt sales also enhanced the growth in earnings.

However, nestle handles positioned itself in the market by adopting a new accounting method which aided a decline in its cost of sales.

The company could also incorporate discounts, allowances, and promotions for its retailers through sales profits rather than the marketing line.

Though its sale was lesser for a year, nestle pricing strategy helped them match its peers, which in turn, made it a famous manufacturer even though the competition was so high.

Being the world’s most popular food manufacturer, nestle has intense competition with its rival company, Unilever.

Unilever has around 1,49,000 employees and operates in 160 countries, with its headquarters in London for food, home, and personal care.

The company is trying hard to beat Nestle in terms of the quality of their product, which has made Unilever the second company in the Western European ready meals market with a market share of around 8.6%, i.e., 0.3 points behind the iconic Nestle.

Nestle’s Target Audience and Products for Each Segment

The unique thing about Nestle is that it offers a wide range of products that covers audiences of different ages, from 2-year-old to working professionals.

Here’s a breakdown of Nestle’s Target Audience and the products meant for them.

• Target Audience
• Working Professionals
• General Audiences
• Koko Krunch, Caregrow, Lactogrow
• Sunrise, Nescafe
• Maggi, KitKat, Milkmaid

Everyone, especially coffee lovers, will know how Nescafe is a big hit among working professionals.

Nestle guarantees that Nescafe is the only coffee that would keep professionals fresh throughout the day, and who does not want to feel fresh?

Regarding kids, parents blindly trust the product “Caregrow” by Nestle. The product consists of cereals to keep young kids healthy.

However, nestle has several other products like KitKat, Milkmaid, and Maggi for the general audience.

It is how Nestle has designed something for everyone in India. In the coming section, we will dig into how Nestle has advertised itself and its products in the digital world.

Nestle’s Digital Marketing Strategies

By now, you must have understood that Nestle is the world’s largest food and beverage company in terms of revenue. So, it might be basic information for many of you.

But what if we say Nestle always tries to be one step ahead regarding marketing strategies and policies?

It has always focused on the most updated marketing ways no matter, whether it is digital marketing strategies or offline strategies.

Nestle’s marketing strategies will teach you to build marketing strategies that work and get a positive response from customers.

Let us start with Nestle’s Digital Marketing Strategies that must follow if they want to succeed as a brand.

Partner with influential celebrities

Nescafe, a product of Nestle, collaborates with celebrities to put forward their message and create more noise around their brand.

A few years ago, they announced Bollywood actress Disha Patani as their brand ambassador.

Recently, they launched a campaign with famous content creators called “Karne Se Hi Hona Hai,” which means “Only doing will make it happen.”

They created this campaign during the Covid Pandemic to inspire people and encourage them to keep working hard towards their dreams no matter their situation.

Through this campaign, they targeted the youth of India and asked them to dream, act, and achieve success.

• Run campaigns that foster connections and bring customers together

An ordinary 37-year-old guy named Arnaud, with 1,2000 Facebook friends, was challenged by the company to catch up with his friends over a cup of coffee.

So, he filmed these meetings and turned them into a 42-minute online video documentary. During the sessions, Arnaud enjoyed a cup of Nescafe with his pals.

The documentary was a big hit on social media. It got almost 8 million views on Facebook, around 63,050 likes, 4,850 comments, and 5,550 shares. 

The Facebook Page of Nescafe saw an increase in the number of fans by 400%.

Fans were excited by the documentary and wanted to know how to turn their online friendships into real-life relationships.

As a reaction, it created the “le Defi Nescafe,” a Facebook campaign to allow winners to reinvent the same experience.

More than 26,000 people applied, around 19,000 liked it, and nearly 1,725 shared.

Instantly, Nescafe became an online sensation by marketing itself as an item that stimulates connections and friendships.

2. Localization of Products

Localization is adapting an organization’s products to the local market. Nestle has gone huge on localization in various markets where it now manages.

For example, consider Japan, where the organization’s primary foray was through coffee-flavored chocolates.

Japan is traditionally a tea-drinking country, and the company established these candies so that kids could also get to know the taste of coffee.

Later, it introduced Nescafe and KitKat, and what happened is history.

3. Content Marketing

Nestle has created many video content on every brand’s YouTube channels. The content ranges from informative “how-to” videos to cooking tips to better insights on using the right products.

For example, the “Meri Maggi” has more than 530 videos with more than 5,71,000 subscribers.

Though video content is an expanding channel in Nestle’s marketing strategy, it has recognized other avenues to share relevant information with its consumers.

4. Out-of-Home Advertising

Nestle’s brands, including Maggi, Milo, KitKat, and Nescafe, use different ways to grab customers’ attention.

Whether benches, hoardings, or banners, Nestle’s brands have made it to the limelight for their contextuality and creativity.

What are the advantages of using OOH ads? First, most people correctly receive these ads. They are worth sharing.

People can take photos online, send them to their friends or relatives, and even marketers discuss them.

In addition, with the help of OTT, they can reach many people at a low cost.

Also, Nestle’s marketing strategies are exceptional and generate some customers.

5. Co-branding

Have you ever heard about Android KitKat?

A few years back, Google and Nestle united and invented an Android KitKat operating system.

Nestle was facing a new scandal with their pet product and wanted to capitalize on the image of Google. This movie created a buzz and surpassed the crisis.

Lately, nestle signed another deal with Starbucks to kill two different birds at a time.

First, the brand entered the new product development stage-i.e., roasted beans- and improved its brand by discovering a wide range of Starbucks Nespresso Capsules.

Did you understand how co-branding helped Nestle?

Co-branding is great for stepping into a new market and widening your reach. This marketing benefits startup that wants to create brand awareness or launch a new item.

It would help if you found companies that complement your products and collaborated with them to run co-branding promotional ads.

Nestle – Challenges Faced

Undoubtedly, Maggi was the most popular instant noodles brand in India. The brand had established its presence in India’s food industry, but suddenly it became controversial.

State food regulators stated that Maggi contains Monosodium Glutamate and lead above the recommended limits, which were dangerous, especially for kids.  

When nestle encountered lab results, it said that they had a world-class quality control procedure and that their products were safe for consumption.

Ultimately, the National Food Regulator FSSAI ordered to ban on the selling of Maggi, including product recall.

Consequently, various state governments imposed a temporary ban on selling Maggi noodles in a few states. As a result, the future of the company suddenly started looking dark.

Another acquisition of Nestle by the critics was they accused that the brand discouraged mothers from breastfeeding.

They showed that their baby formula is much healthier than breastfeeding, although they didn’t have any proof to support this.

It resulted in a boycott of Maggi for the first time after its launch in 1977 in the United States and slowly spread to Europe.

Several reports have acknowledged the widespread use of child labor in Cocoa production, slavery, and child trafficking, throughout the Western African plantations on which Nestle and other important chocolate companies depend.

As per the 2010 documentary, The Dark Side of Chocolate, the kids working are usually 12 to 15 years old. Nestle faced criticism from The Fair Labour Association for not properly checking.

Different Campaigns by Nestle 

• Ask Nestle Campaign

In this campaign, Nestle India launched a digital tool, NINA, which stands for Nestle India Nutrition Assistant on AskNestle, which used Artificial Intelligence to offer real-time nutritional information on the foods we consume.

In addition, it assisted Indian parents in designing a nutritious customized meal plan for their kids below 12.

This campaign by Nestle was India’s first artificially intelligent assistant that permits one to find nutritional information for kids.

So, this is how Nestle India set its foot on digital fronts and started driving organic traffic and improved overall engagement compared to competitors.

2. #WeMissYouToo Maggi Campaign

Maggi suffered a massive loss after it got banned as Maggi contained a high amount of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and lead content- more than what is allowed.

It was hard for them to hope for a comeback, but Maggi did their best and experienced huge sales. As a result, the price and volume of Maggi are now much more significant than before.

How did they do so?

They did so through their different marketing campaigns. One among them was the #WeMissYouToo campaign.

In addition, they published a few videos showing how people are kissing Maggi and how their life was better with Maggi.

Videos showed how Maggi has been a staple food for many and how its absence had affected their lives. 

In campaigns, characters addressed Maggi as “yaar” or a “close friend” who is always there for them when in need. 

Therefore, they considered Maggi’s return as a huge celebration that brought people’s life to normalcy.

3. A Campaign for kids: Poora Poshan Poori Tasalli

Nestle Caregrow started this campaign in 2019. The campaign targeted couples living in the cities who had kids between the age of 2 to 5 years.

India is where parents are very concerned about their child’s health and nutrition right from birth. Nestle kept this in mind and decided to portray this care through its campaign. 

The brand portrayed how Indian mothers worry about their kids’ proper nourishment.

The brand came up with a new product, Caregrow, which controls a child’s hunger and offers all the essential nutrients for enhancing the child’s immunity and overall development.

4. Celebrate the Breakers- KitKat campaign

Across the world, people consume around 12 billion KitKat chocolates every year.

It is one of Nestle’s most famous chocolate products available in India. The company also released “KitKat Senses, a premium “slow-whipped” chocolate.

Nestle sought to influence Instagram to support its “Celebrate the Breakers” campaign by raising awareness and message association among enthusiastic 15- to 34-year-old Instagram followers.

Nestle came up with a new worldwide advertising campaign that takes a different approach altogether with a famous slogan, “Enjoy a break, enjoy a KitKat.”

“Celebrate the Breakers” was a new idea that identified the different forms of breaks that generally “breakers” take.

The animated movies showed KitKat chocolates are the best for enjoying a break in life.

Instagram was the appropriate platform for Nestle to showcase this idea graphically.

The brand posted a series of pictures with the hashtag “# mybreak over seven weeks ,” showing how people enjoy different types of breaks, like sleeping at their workplace, enjoying a party, or listening to their favorite music.

The images of KitKat match efficiently with its customers, as Instagram is a place where people share their daily moments and experiences.

Future Plans of Nestle

Nestle planned to invest Rs. 5,000 crores in India in the coming 3 ½ years, as per Mark Schneider, the company’s CEO.

The FMCG company, which has nearly 2,000 brands across the globe, believes that this initiative will help Nestle to improve its core business in India and enjoy new growth opportunities.

It marks the brand’s most significant investment in India since the year it started manufacturing.

Nestle is renowned in food, nutrition, health, and wellness.

Its competitive strategies mainly focus on overseas direct investment in ready-to-eat, dairy, and other food businesses.

Though there is rising competition, Nestle has remained on top for a long.

It maintains its dominance by balancing sales between high-risk and low-risk nations.

Over the years, Nestle has proven itself as a leader in the food and beverage industry with product innovation and innovative marketing strategies.

It creates campaigns that are memorable, relatable, and share-worthy.

As it is moving toward developing a solid presence in the future, digital marketing will play an essential role in the future growth of Nestle.

As Nestle continues to follow its values, mission, vision, and purpose, it will continue to grow. 

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20 What Went Wrong? A Case Study on Nestle Maggi Noodles

• Published: June 2022
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Nestle’s ‘Maggi brand noodles’ the trusted and valuable food brand in India is the favourite among all the children in the country. It was considered as snacks in many households and a basic diet in many other homes. But in the recent past, the ban on Maggi has created a negative impact of Nestle. The favourite and most preferred instant food product of children, Maggi Noodles, got entangled in its ethical issues of the ingredients being used. The corporate social responsibility of Nestle India was tremendously cross-questioned with its after-test results, by food regulatory authorities. The case study is an effort to explore the various issues, possibilities, and opportunities for Maggi. The study focuses on need and scope brand image and brand repositioning, brand extension, etc.

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The Only Course You'll Need To Understand Marketing Like Never Before

How to Get Started with Marketing and Design Your Career in 5 Steps

Product Life Cycle of Maggi Product Life Cycle is an interesting marketing concept which tells us the length of time the product exists in the market, i.e., from its introduction to the it being taken off the shelf. In this article, let us read about the product life cycle of Maggi.

Maggi has been every Indians comfy food for more than 3 decades!  Remember the late-night Maggi? “Pahaad-wali” Maggi? Or simply the snack-time comfy Maggi? Although, have you ever thought about how Maggi evolved as a product over the years?  Through this article, lets understand the Product Life Cycle of Maggi.

Nestle launched Maggi in the year 1982 as the first instant noodle brand in India. Although it was difficult to position Maggi in its early years, it can easily be said that it has positioned itself so strongly in the minds of the consumer that it has become a brand in itself.

The Maggi brand originates from Switzerland where in 1886, Julius Maggi created a recipe of flavours to bring added taste to meals. This marked the beginning of Maggi brand and its convenient products. In the year 1947, Nestle acquired Maggi.

Let us understand in detail, what are the 5 stages of product life cycle? And see the product life cycle of Maggi, our favourite instant noodle brand!

What are the 5 stages of product life cycle?

The concept of product life cycle cannot be explained more appropriately than the image given below.

Every product like a flower bud is initially born and goes through the development stage and is then introduced to the world. In the middle picture, the product is in its highest selling phase which is the maturity phase and then eventually starts declining and is removed from the shelf.

Source: Amazonaws.com

The product life cycle of a product is associated with marketing and management decisions within business , according to this concept, all the products go through 5 primary stages in their life: development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

It is measured on two parameters, sales and time, with time the sales of the product initially increase reaches the maximum and starts declining until it is completely removed from the shelves.

Source: Product Life Cycle

Let’s understand what are the 5 stages of product life cycle, and all the 5 components individually.

Development

Referred to as the “Valley of death”, the development stage is the first stage in the product life cycle of a product where the costs keep accumulating for making the product without any corresponding revenue.

The timeline and expense of this stage differs with different products, some products require large capital investment in the development and trial of the product in this stage and other products might not need a lot of investment at this stage.

Development stage is very ambiguous and is risky for outside investors, therefore attracting very limited number of outside investors placing the financial burden on the company itself. Existing companies can survive in this case, but gets very difficult for a start up to survive in this valley of death.

Introduction 

The introduction stage is launching the product in the market, trying to develop a market for the product and building product awareness. It is the most crucial stage for the survival of the product.

In this stage, it is observed that the product has low sales, high costs per customer as the product price might be high to recover the cost associated with the development phase of the product life cycle, and funding of this phase is generally through an investor or lender.

When a product enters the growth phase the sales and profits of the product take off, thereby reducing the cost per customer. Increased number of customers lead to increase in sales and profit and seeing the opportunity in this segment, more competitors start entering the market.

In the growth phase, the product is accepted by the customer and the company through innovative product design, product differentiation, etc., try to increase their market share.

As the competition gets more intense in the growth and maturity stage, the company tries to differentiate its product from the competitors.

At this stage, we see the peak point in terms of sales and the product reaches a saturation point after which the growth in sales becomes constant or in some cases starts declining.

In this phase, the cost per customer is the lowest, profits are high and the product owns a larger part of the market share. Companies usually do not need additional funding at this stage.

The decline stage of a product life cycle is associated with decrease in revenue due to market saturation, high competition, and changing customer needs.

Companies at this stage can either choose to discontinue the product, use the resources of this product to make other company products, sell the manufacturing rights to some other business, etc.

This stage is the last stage in the product’s life cycle, after which the product’s shelf life ends.

Now that we’ve covered what the five steps of product life cycle are, let’s get back to the product life cycle of Maggi. In this article we will read about the 4 main phases of the product life cycle of Maggi, i.e., Introduction, growth, maturity, decline.

Introductory stage in product life cycle of Maggi

Popular in many countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Nestle wanting to explore the potential for such instant food/noodle brand in India, launched Maggi in the year 1982. It took several years and lot of money for Nestle to establish its noodles brand in India.

Source: nestle.in

When Maggi noodles was launched in India it had segmented the based on age and urban families targeting kids, youth and office goers positioning itself as fast to cook, 2 minute noodles, with the tagline of “taste bhi, Health bhi”. Positioning however was not an issue, as no instant noodle had been launched in India, Maggi was the first one.

In the initial stages, Maggi had high failure rates, frequent product modifications(to adjust to Indian consumer), high marketing and product cost as they were trying to build product awareness. With a lot of ups and downs and high failure rates, Maggi survived the introductory stage.

Let us now see the next stage in the product life cycle of Maggi, the growth stage.

Growth Stage in Product Life Cycle of Maggi

Around 1985, the demand for Maggi had increased tremendously in India recovering their developmental costs and increasing the sales rate. Maggi remained the monopoly in the Indian Market till 1990, after which Top Ramen entered the market reducing the market share of Maggi a little.

10 years back Maggi had 50% of the market , In order to increase its sales again, Maggi introduced a new flavour in 1997 which wasn’t well accepted by the consumer, thus in 1999, Nestle re-launched its old flavour of Maggi, getting back on track in terms of sales.

Over the years, Nestle has also introduced many products under the Maggi brand, like the ketchups, soup, oats, pasta, more noodle flavours etc.

Source: Worldkings.org

Let us now see the next stage in the product life cycle of Maggi, the Maturity Stage.

Maturity Stage in Product Life Cycle of Maggi

During it’s maturity stage, Maggi’s sales were at peak, production costs were low and profits were high. In 2003, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) was all set to take on Nestle’s Maggi by launching a new category of liquid snacks under it’s food brand Knorr Annapurna.

Priced aggressively at 5Rs, the new product called Knorr Annapurna Soupy Snax was made available in 4 varieties. Like Maggi, it had a similar target market and positioned it in a similar manner.

Also, Maggi faced tough competition from Top Ramen. That led to decline in sales, signifying that Maggi had entered the maturity stage.

Maggi reaching the peak and seeing the sales rate declining launched a series of new products. While keeping price aggressive at 5 Rs and made the distribution channel more intensive to encourage their product over the competitor.

Let us now see the last stage in the product life cycle of Maggi, the Decline Stage.

Decline Stage in Product Life Cycle of Maggi

There were certain hiccups in the way- like the banning of Maggi. Due to high lead content almost led us to believe that our favourite noodle brand is now off the shelf. And may be reached its last phase, i.e., the decline stage.

Read the entire story of how Maggi escaped its death here !

But Nestle invested more in the research of Maggi and took corrective actions. For example, Internal employee engagement, increased campaign, more activities on social media, and revived back from the near disaster.

Talking about the current scenario, After the world was hit by the Corona Virus Pandemic In the year 2019, Maggi sales shot up by 25% as consumers stayed home and stockpiled instant noodles.

With increase in total and domestic sales by 8.1% and 8.5% , respectively, Maggi’s revenue in the year 2020 and 2021 is continuing to increase. Maggi therefore escaped its death and climbed back from the decline stage and recovered well.

These were the most important stages in the product life cycle of Maggi!

This was my take on the product life cycle of Maggi. In this article we talked about What are the 5 stages of product life cycle?  Namely, the Development, Introduction, growth, maturity and decline stages.

We also discussed in detail the Product life cycle of Maggi. The Introductory, growth, maturity and decline stages in product life cycle of Maggi.

Maggi even today is the most liked and valuable instant noodle brand. And now has expanded its reach into other diverse flavours and products.

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• Engineering Design Software /
• Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software /

Product Life Cycle in Marketing: Stages & Examples of PLC Model

Table of Contents

Related Posts

• What is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software?

Product Life Cycle – a term you must have heard or studied before but are still unsure what it means and how it applies to a product or a service.

Many business owners and marketing professionals have their own understanding of how a Product Life Cycle works, but somehow, they still fail to consider it while strategizing.

However, you cannot use the same marketing strategy for a new product that you are about to launch and the product that has been there in the market for years now. It is important to devise unique marketing strategies for every stage of the product lifecycle.

So, here in this article today, we will be understanding the product life cycle, its various stages, and what marketing strategies should be used in every stage with some real-life examples.

What Is Product Life Cycle in Marketing?

Product Life Cycle is the journey of a product from its launch to its end of life or disappears from the market. This product life cycle has five stages:

• Development
• Introduction

The marketing team aligns its efforts and strategies to highlight the changing characteristics of the product in each stage. Looking at the product life cycle through a marketing perspective helps identify how and what should be communicated at each stage.

5 Stages of Product Life Cycle with Examples

Let’s begin to understand the five stages of product life cycle, and what marketing strategies a business should adopt to survive and transition from one stage to another.

• Development: This is the very first and the most sensitive stage in the product’s life cycle. It includes everything from ideation to research, product development, lab tests to designing the final product. In this stage, you need to evaluate everything related to your product, its consumers, market scope, competitors, etc.

In this stage, you cannot expect any sales, but your marketing can create some buzz through social media networks, billboards, and more. Such strategies can help generate curiosity and encourage consumer engagement.

For example, if you are planning to launch a soap, in the development stage you need to focus on market research to identify your competitors, consumer expectations, market gap that your product can fill, etc.

So, now when your product is ready to be launched you can transition to the next stage of product life cycle.

• Introduction: This is the stage when your product is launched for the first time on the market. In this stage, marketers need to focus on creating maximum awareness about the product, introduce it to potential buyers, and convince them to at least consider the product while buying.

The aim of marketing at this stage is to build enough awareness that consumers should at least recognize the product.

The marketing campaign in the previous development stage has helped you in identifying consumer expectations. Now you have designed your product, keeping in mind people’s expectations. The advertisements will tell what this new soap offers, the various problems it solves, and how it is different from others in the market.

• Growth: In this period your communication is designed to target your competitor’s market. You want to acquire their customers and become a more “preferred” brand. The marketing campaign at this stage needs to focus on maximizing market share.

Here the marketing campaign will utilize the user experience to market the soap. You’ll need deeper consumer and competitor analysis to establish that your product is best in the market, and those who are using your competitor’s product should switch to yours.

• Maturity: This stage represents the highest level of product adoption and profitability. In this stage, your new customers are the ones who have switched from your competitors. Marketing efforts in this stage need to be focused on maximizing profit while defending the market share.

There may be more competitors entering the market with new features, so you need to work towards creating brand loyalty and recognition.

Marketing communication should focus on sustaining the brand by establishing brand identity. In this stage, the brand should become bigger than the product itself.

Your advertisements should also be directed towards introducing a new and advanced version of the soap with new packaging and design to give a new and improved look and feel.

• Decline: In this stage, the sales and profits start to shrink. In this stage there is not much scope for marketing, you should focus on reducing the spending and focus on milking the brand that you have created.

After a stage, you need to decide to harvest the product or withdraw the product from the market. You can utilize the loyalty that already exists and then after a point decide to withdraw the product. If you don’t take this decision on time, you might waste your valuable resources and efforts.

How Does Product Lifecycle Work?

Like people, products too have life cycles. It begins with an idea and then eventually manifests into a product which is then strategically launched in the market. When a product is launched, its demand increases, thus, increasing its popularity.

This results in newer products pushing the older ones out of the market, and they reach the later stages of product lifecycle i.e., maturity and eventually decline. This happens because the cost of production increases and the demand of the product decreases because of which the sales decreases.

At this stage, the business needs to take the smart decision of reinventing the product or withdrawing the product from the market to save its resources.

How to Use the Product Life Cycle Model in Marketing?

Now to understand how this product life cycle works in marketing, we’ll go through a case study that many of us have been a part of.

Nestle – Maggi Product Life Cycle Case Study

Introductory Stage in the Product Life Cycle of Maggi: When Maggi entered the Indian market in 1982, it did spend a lot on aggressive marketing. The instant noodle market was an unexplored area, so the positioning was not difficult because there were no competitors.

It segmented itself based on age and urban area while targeting kids, youth, and office goers who were looking for something healthy and instant. They branded it with the tagline, ‘Taste Bhi, Health Bhi’ and a 2-minute noodle.

The marketing at this stage was focused on creating product awareness along with doing several product modifications as per the Indian taste. With lots of ups and downs, Maggi survived the introductory stage with targeted marketing.

Growth Stage in the Product Life Cycle of Maggi: Around 1985, consumers started to accept Maggi and the sales increased. Until 1990, Maggi was still a monopoly after which Top Ramen entered the market which did affect Maggi’s market share by little.

To increase its market share, Maggi launched a new flavor in 1997, but it was not accepted warmly by the Indian audience. In 1999 it re-launched its original flavor, and it was back in the game with increased sales and profits.

During this period, they marketed new product variations under the brand like ketchup, pasta, soup, oats but never shifted their focus from the original product.

Maturity Stage in the Product Life Cycle of Maggi: During this stage, when the sales and profits were soaring high, Maggi faced neck-to-neck competition with Top Ramen. To capture a larger segment of the market, it played on the pricing strategy by introducing a 5 rupees packet of Maggi which increased the distribution.

It helped in taking over the competitor’s market and acquiring the maximum market share. This strategy helped Maggi reach every household irrespective of any demographic.

Decline Stage in the Product Life Cycle of Maggi: In 2015, due to high lead content, Maggi was banned, and everyone’s favorite noodle was taken off the shelf and it was believed that Maggi has entered the decline stage.

But Maggi bounced back. With effective PR and marketing, Maggi proved itself to be safe for human consumption and brought itself back by branding it as safe for consumption.

It invested in research, internal employee engagement, social media campaigns, and exclusively re-launched itself with Snapdeal.

Before returning locally, Maggi offered its loyal customers to pre-order from Snapdeal, and in no time the demand increased. Maggi branded itself as ‘Your Maggi is safe, has always been’ and thus, escaped death.

What are the Best Product Lifecycle Marketing Strategies?

Based on your product and its USPs, different strategies can be adopted in different stages of product lifecycle. Let’s discuss what different strategies you can choose at each stage: 

Marketing Strategies in Introductory Stage: While aiming to create product awareness and establishing a product identity, your marketing strategies should focus on reaching out to the right customers. The following approach can be adopted: 

• Rapid Skimming, launching a product at high price with aggressive promotions
• Slow Skimming, launching a product at high price with slow promotions
• Rapid Penetration, launching a product at low price with aggressive promotions
• Slow Penetration, launching a product at low price with slow promotions

In this stage, you can often play with pricing and positioning strategies to create demand.

Marketing Strategies in Growth Stage: The strategies in this stage focus on increasing profits and expanding the market. The following marketing strategies can be used here:

• Upgrading the product with new features
• Expanding in new market segments
• Strategically pricing the product, low or high
• Increasing distribution channels 
• Shifting marketing communication from product features to customer preference

Marketing Strategies in Maturity Stage: In this stage, you enjoy increased sales, and the marketing strategies are all about retaining the brand. The following marketing strategies can be used here:

• Acquiring competitor’s users
• Converting non-users into customers
• Launching an advanced version of the product
• Making the brand more valuable than products
• Enter new market segments

Marketing Strategies in Decline Stage: This is the stage when you should know when to stop or withdraw from the market to save your resources. The following marketing strategies can be used here:

• Reduce marketing expenditure
• Reduce distribution channels
• Lower prices to increase sales
• Reinvent the product
• Harvest the product before discontinuing it

To Conclude

The basic product life cycle applies to all products and services. The right marketing strategies in each stage can help you derive maximum profits and sales and position your product.

These strategies can help you in stretching a particular phase in the product life cycle, and survive for several years in the maturity stage.

A product’s demand is destined to decline, but by adopting technology and changing trends, you can reinvent and repurpose your product to survive in the market.

What are the stages of customer lifecycle?

Five stages of customer lifecycle are Discovery, Education, Purchase, Post-Purchase Engagement and Advocacy.

What are the best product life cycle marketing strategies?

The best product life cycle marketing strategies can be rapid or slow skimming and penetration, where you can strategically price the product to create demand.

What is customer lifecycle marketing?

Customer lifecycle marketing is a process to create communication strategy to support prospects and customers in their buyer journey.

Why is product life cycle important in marketing?

Various stages in a product life cycle require different marketing strategies to achieve the desired objectives. For example, in the introductory stage, product awareness is required, and in the maturity stage, brand loyalty is required.

What is the main objective of product life cycle management?

The main objective of product life cycle management is to identify potential sales opportunities in each stage and establish brand identity and loyalty.

What are the types of product life cycle?

The types of product life cycle are development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

Related Categories: Engineering Design Software | PLM Software | BIM Software | Simulation Software | Electrical Design Software

Isha’s writing journey started way back in 2018 when she graduated in the field of Journalism & Mass Communication. Since then, she has been writing for all digital and print marketing assets including blogs, editorial reviews, landing pages, emailers, and more. She has contributed her writings to genres... Read more

Related Question and Answers

The five most actionable ways PLM can help your company increase efficiency and improve business outcomes are centralizing product data, streamlining workflows, improving collaboration, reducing errors, and accelerating time-to-market.

• Write Answer

Key benefits of using PLM to improve NPI (New Product Introduction) efficiency include better collaboration, centralized data management, reduced errors, faster decision-making, and improved product lifecycle management. Real-world examples of NPI best practices may include cross-functional team coordination, early prototyping, and efficient change management.

To resolve the 'Bad date' error when importing data into a revision-controlled workspace, where the 'Version Timestamp' property is mapped to the 'Lifecycle Properties -> Release Date' property, make sure that the date format in your import data matches the expected format in Fusion 360 Manage. Double-check that there are no formatting issues or invalid date values in your data.

The key benefits of using Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for change management include improved collaboration, better version control, streamlined workflows, reduced errors, and efficient tracking of changes. It helps teams work together seamlessly and ensures that changes are properly documented and approved.

The most widely used PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) software includes Siemens Teamcenter, PTC Windchill, and Dassault Systèmes CATIA. These solutions help manage product development processes efficiently.

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• Case Study of Nestle

In this article you will learn about Nestle case study which includes different types of Pricing Strategies that Nestle has used.

In 2019, America accounted for 50% of Nestle’s global sales. In that year, it earned a total of around 92.6 billion Swiss francs.

→ How did Nestle manage to make that much money?

→ What was their price strategy?

Table of Contents

Nestle case study

Heinrich Nestle established Nestle in Switzerland in 1866. One of the first international corporations is Nestle. Nestle set out to seize development prospects in several nations right from the start. It joined with Anglo-Swiss condensed milk in 1905, expanding its product line to include condensed milk and infant formula. With operations in 189 nations, Nestle now has 447 plants.

Products offered by Nestle

Breakfast cereals, beverages, dairy, chocolates, nutritious foods and food services are all offered by Nestle.

Popular food items from Nestle that are available in India include Kit Kat, Maggi, Milkmaid, Polo, and Nescafe.

This renowned company has been using its knowledge of Health, Nutrition, and Wellness for more than 150 years to make its clients’ lives healthier and happier.

They do, however, believe that what works now might not tomorrow.

In order to uncover more ways to experiment with foods, nutrition, and beverages, they keep exploring and concentrating on pushing the boundaries.

Nestle unlocks the potential of food to raise everyone’s standard of living, not only now but for future generations.

The brand focuses on increasing consumer satisfaction and enjoyment, enabling better health, and making the greatest nutrition accessible to everyone.

In addition to this, the company explores novel approaches to safeguard and enhance natural resources.

Competitors of Nestle: A Case Study

Carnation, Kit Kat, Nestle-water, and Stouffers are just a few of the well-known consumer brands owned by Nestle.

The corporation is a major player in the global food and beverage market because thirty of its brands had earnings of more than $1 billion in 2010.

Nestle is one of the food and beverage industry’s most geographically diverse corporations, with about 42% of its sales occurring in North America. It puts it in a position that gives it an advantage over its competitors.

Leading economies including the United States and Europe have significant market shares where its brands are well-established.

Nestle faces significant competition from Danone and Unilever. Like Nestle, these two are industry titans in the food and beverage sector.

Due to its rapid sales in the food and beverage sector, particularly ice cream, frozen food, tea-based beverages, and cookery items, Unilever reported an increase in annual profits of almost 26% in 2010.

Danone, on the other hand, reported a 38 percent increase as a result of rising stock prices. Additionally, the surge in earnings was boosted by an increase in its yoghurt sales.

Nestle Handles, on the other hand, positioned itself in the market by implementing a new accounting technique that helped to drive down its cost of sales.

Discounts, allowances, and promotions for the company’s merchants could potentially be included in sales profits rather than the marketing line.

Even though Nestle’s sales were down for a year, their pricing strategy enabled them to compete with their counterparts, which helped them become a well-known manufacturer despite the intense competition.

Nestle, the most well-known food maker in the world, competes fiercely with Unilever.

With offices in 160 nations and about 1,49,000 employees, Unilever houses its food, home, and personal care divisions in London.

Unilever has a market share of about 8.6% in the Western European ready meals industry, which places it second, 0.3 points behind the renowned Nestle, as the corporation works hard to outperform Nestle in terms of the quality of their product.

Target Market of Nestle

The distinctive feature of Nestle is that it provides a broad selection of products that cater to audiences of all ages, from 2-year-olds to working adults.

Here is a list of Nestle’s target market and the products that are offered in each segment.

→Working Professionals

Everyone will be aware of how popular Nescafe is among working professionals, especially coffee enthusiasts.

Who doesn’t want to feel fresh?

According to Nestle, Nescafe is the only coffee that will keep professionals alert throughout the day.

Parents totally trust Nestle’s “Caregrow” product when it comes to children. Cereals are included in the product to keep young children healthy.

→General Audiences

For the broader public, Nestle offers a number of additional items like KitKat, Milkmaid, and Maggi.

Nestle has created products with something for everyone in mind. We’ll go into how Nestle has marketed itself and its goods online in the next section.

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Nestle’s strategies for Digital Marketing

You must be aware at this point that Nestle has the largest revenue of any food and beverage company in the world. 

What if, however, we said that Nestle consistently tries to be one step ahead in terms of marketing techniques and guidelines?

Regardless of whether they are offline or online, it has always concentrated on the most modern marketing techniques strategies.

You can learn how to create marketing strategies that generate a favourable response from customers by studying Nestle’s marketing strategies.

Let’s begin with the digital marketing strategies that Nestle must implement if they are to prosper as a brand.

Nestle: Partner with influential celebrities

Nescafe, a Nestle product, works with celebrities to promote their message and raise awareness of their brand.

They named Bollywood actress Disha Patani as their brand ambassador a few years ago.

Nescafe recently began a campaign called “Karne Se Hi Hona Hai,” which translates to “Only doing will make it happen,” and featured well-known content producers.

Also, they developed this campaign during the Covid Pandemic to motivate individuals and inspire them to keep striving for their goals regardless of their circumstances.

They appealed to India’s young with this campaign, encouraging them to dream, act, and succeed.

Nestle: Product localization

The process of localizing involves adjusting a company’s products for a certain market. On the numerous markets it presently manages, Nestle has invested much in localization.

Take Japan as an example, where the company’s main entry point was through chocolates infused with coffee.

Since Japan is typically a tea-drinking nation, the business created these candies to introduce children to the flavour of coffee.

When Nescafe and KitKat were added later, the rest is history.

Nestle: Co-branding

Do you know anything about Android KitKat?

Google and Nestle collaborated to create the Android KitKat operating system a few years ago.

Nestle sought to benefit from Google’s goodwill in light of a recent issue involving one of their pet products. This movie overcame the crisis and generated discussion.

Nestle has signed another agreement with Starbucks to accomplish two goals simultaneously.

First, the company started developing new products, like as roasted beans, and enhanced its reputation by learning about a variety of Starbucks Nespresso Capsules.

Did you understand how co-branding helped Nestle?

Co-branding is a fantastic way to expand your reach and enter a new market. Startups looking to build their brand or introduce a new product can profit from this marketing.

Finding businesses that complement your items and working with them to create co-branding promotional commercials might be beneficial.

Nestle: Content Marketing 

On the YouTube channels for each of its brands, Nestle has posted a lot of video content. The information includes cooking advice, educational “how-to” films, and greater insights on using the proper products.

As an illustration, the “Meri Maggi” channel has more than 530 videos and 5,71,000 subscribers.

Nestle has recognised various ways to provide essential information to its customers, despite the fact that video content is an emerging channel in its marketing strategy.

Nestle: Out-of-Home Advertising

Maggi, Milo, KitKat, and Nescafe are just a few of the Nestle brands that employ various techniques to get consumers’ attention.

Whether on benches, hoardings, or banners, Nestle’s brands have gained attention for their originality and contextual relevance.

What are the benefits of adopting OOH advertisements? First of all, most individuals understand these advertisements. They merit spreading.

Photographs can be taken online, sent to friends or family, and even discussed by marketers.

Additionally, they can inexpensively reach a large number of individuals with the aid of OTT.

Additionally, Nestle’s marketing tactics are excellent and bring in certain clients.

Nestle: Run marketing strategies that encourage connections and unite customers

The business issued a challenge to Arnaud, a regular 37-year-old man with 1,2000 Facebook connections, to catch up with them over a cup of coffee.

He therefore recorded these meetings and produced a 42-minute web video documentary from them. Arnaud and his friends had a cup of Nescafe throughout the sessions.

Social media users loved the documentary. On Facebook, it had nearly 8 million views, 63,050 likes, 4,850 comments, and 5,550 shares.

The number of admirers on Nescafe’s Facebook page increased by 400%.

The video generated excitement among viewers, who were eager to learn how to develop genuine relationships from their online friendships.

In response, it developed the “le Defi Nescafe,” a Facebook contest that gave victors the opportunity to reinvent the same experience.

More than 26,000 people submitted applications, almost 1,725 shared, and about 19,000 loved it.

Nescafe quickly rose to fame online by positioning itself as a product that fosters relationships and friendships.

Nestle’s Social Media Marketing Strategy

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are just a few of the three major social media networks where Nestle is present.

Nestle’s Social Media Presence

Let’s examine how it operates and what Nestle does on each social media site.

Nestle’s Facebook

Nestle India has designed its Facebook. It shares posts related to what Nestle India is currently up to. It also announces its new launches, talks about its corporate social responsibility (CSR) measures, etc.

It maintains separate pages for its brands such as Maggi, Kit Kat, Nescafe, Koko Krunch, etc. which also have an huge amount of followers.

• Maggi has around 16 million followers
• Nescafe has 36 million followers
• Kit Kat has about 11 million followers

Nestle’s Instagram

• Maggi has around 53K followers
• Nescafe has 30K followers
• KitKat has about 1 million followers

Having separate social media profiles for its various brands, helps them organize marketing campaigns effectively and thus resulting in a strong brand connection with its customers.

Nestle’s Twitter

Nestle India has been maintaining its Twitter profile as a medium of communication between the company and its audience. It also solves queries related to its products by replying to every comment and mentions done by the general public on the platform.

Nestle on Twitter has maintained separate profiles for its various brands. This helps them promote their products effectively.

Nestle’s YouTube

Nestle India’s YouTube channel has about 95K subscribers. On this platform, they post all the advertisements of their brands. However, Nestle maintains the same strategy of maintaining a separate profile for its various brands.

Nestle’s Pricing Strategy

The moment you make a mistake in pricing, you’re eating into your reputation or your profits.” Katharine Paine.

The most crucial factor for increasing sales is pricing. Harvard research show that a 1% rise in pricing results in an 11% increase in profits (approx.). Every time a transaction is made and the price structure is off, the company loses money. Consequently, accurate pricing is essential.

A multinational company called Nestle currently has a net worth of around $270 billion. The brand’s price strategy is what has contributed to its success.

Nestle’s revenue is steadily increasing, which shows that its products were successfully identified and positioned in the market. In general, Nestle’s products are more expensive than those of the retailing brand.

In comparison to other brands, Nestle’s pricing strategy is very unique. It simply depends on recognition, which is linked to the product’s apparent excellence. Nestle evaluates the price plan it wishes to use based on this quality and the attitude of the customers.

Here are some of the strategies that Nestle has used to accomplish its objectives.

1- Price Skimming: Nestle

When using price skimming as a pricing strategy, a business sets its price high at first then gradually reduces it.

When Nestle enters a new market, it practices price skimming for some of its products. Upper-middle-class consumers were regarded by Nestle as the product’s target market.

Later, as a result of the effectiveness of this strategy and approach, they cut the prices and focused on the middle class.

2-Inexpensive Pricing Strategy: Nestle

Nestle has a large number of brands and a variety of products, many of which are priced fairly. Market segmentation is used to determine pricing. Target audiences are typically included in market segmentation.

The method of segmenting a market involves breaking it up into smaller sections. Depending on needs, psychographic, behavioral, and demographic factors, it divides into subcategories.

Nestle uses a cheap price strategy rather than an expensive one if it wants to appeal to the mass market.

In the instance of Nestle’s Maggi noodles, this took place. Compared to other Nestle products, it is regarded as being reasonably priced. However, Maggi may appear to be a little expensive when compared to other noodle brands on a global scale. Bundle price strategy.

Nestle has gradually come to understand that people prefer to buy their groceries in bundles rather than doing their shopping every day. Nestle therefore adopted the bundle packs strategy.

Maggi was initially available in a single pack, but Nestle later provided a 16 pack, which ultimately enhanced sales.

3- Penetration Pricing Strategy: Nestle

Offering new items at lower prices than competitors in an effort to attract more customers away from them is known as penetration pricing.

To draw in new customers, Nestle offered a new flavor of Maggi instant noodles at a discounted price of £2.25. The goal of Nestle’s plan was to steal more customers away from its competitors who were charging £3.25 for similar flavors. Nevertheless, Nestle raised the price to £3 as their client base grew.

4- Psychological pricing strategy: Nestle

Pricing that appeals to the consumer’s psychology makes it easier for them to develop a favorable psychological impact over them and make a purchase.

Instead of costing £9, Nestle Aero bliss was marketed for £8.99. This pricing strategy will influence the consumer’s psychology favorably and encourage them to purchase the product.

5- Stock Keeping Units: Nestle

Because Nestle does not want any customers to leave, it offers a range of prices for each stock-keeping unit, enabling it to appeal to a wider audience. Nestle has everything covered, offering several pack sizes for products like Maggi noodles and cereals.

Cereal from Nestle is a little more expensive than other brands.

As a result, it began providing tiny pouches for everyday use. This has made the pouches far less expensive than larger packs, enabling various customer segments to purchase Nestle’s products.

6- Discounts offered: Nestle

Nestle provides discounts at a variety of retail stores. Nestle items frequently come in bundles and are discounted by 5% or 10%.

It is less expensive to purchase coffee and creamer together than to do it individually.

7- Competitive pricing strategy: Nestle

Analyzing the pricing policies strategies of its competitors is another broad strategy that Nestle employs. Nestle has a number of brands, and each brand has a distinct department that analyses the pricing tactics of its competitors.

Additionally, it looks at the sales, innovation, and marketing strategies of competitors. As they take into account consumer preferences, Nestle’s competitive pricing strategy helps them to achieve their desired position.

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Global pricing strategies of Nestle

Nestle makes an effort to implement pricing strategies that would help it achieve its financial goals globally. These strategies frequently use the penetration and skimming strategies.

When Nestle products are exported to foreign countries, their prices inevitably increase. As an alternative, it also employs price skimming, which involves setting a higher price initially and then lowering it in response to customer demand.

Nestle has developed into one of the top parent companies with prosperous branches operating under its umbrella. Nestle has been successful with consumers because it adapts to various price tactics based on the places it sells in and the products it offers.

It prioritizes the needs of its clients and works to offer the highest-quality goods in a variety of price ranges so that all consumer groups can afford its goods, hence boosting sales and profitability for the business.

Nestle Company’s pricing strategy- Key Insights

✔Heinrich Nestle established Nestle in Switzerland in 1866.

✔Nestle was initially developed by Heinrich for the purpose of supplying milk formula for infants. He discovered that it could be made from powdered milk, sugar, and other natural foods.

✔A multinational company called Nestle has a current net worth of roughly $270 billion. The brand’s price strategy is what has contributed to its success.

✔Compared to other brands, Nestle’s pricing strategy is very unique.

✔Price skimming, inexpensive and bundle pricing, penetration pricing, stock keeping units, psychological pricing, discounts, and competitive pricing are some of the pricing strategies that Nestle employs.

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Upcoming plans of Nestle

According to Nestle’s CEO Mark Schneider, the business intended to invest Rs. 5,000 crores in India over the next three and a half years.

The FMCG company, which owns nearly 2,000 brands worldwide, is certain that this move will enable Nestle to strengthen its core operations in India and take advantage of fresh development prospects.

It is the company’s largest investment in India since it began producing goods there.

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I love how you break down the different target markets for Nestle. This is so helpful for businesses trying to figure out where to focus their marketing efforts.

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Product Life Cycle – Worksheet 3

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Dissipation-based life cycle impact assessment of mineral resource use—a review, case study, and implications for the product environmental footprint

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• Open access
• Published: 27 April 2024

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• Markus Berger   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3012-7470 1  

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Impacts of mineral resource use on the availability of resources can be assessed using a broad range of methods. Until recently, life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) models have been based on resource extraction. As extracted resources are not necessarily “lost” for future use, recent methodological developments have shifted the focus from resource extraction to resource dissipation . This paper aims at reviewing dissipation-based LCIA methods, testing them in a case study, analyzing potential implications for the product environmental footprint (PEF), and providing recommendations for future method development.

Five recently developed LCIA methods have been reviewed and compared based on 22 criteria, such as the forms and time horizons of dissipation considered, scientific publication, and number of characterization factors (CFs). Additionally, the abiotic depletion potential (ADP) method has been included to serve as a non-dissipation-based reference. All methods are tested in a case study on a theoretical product, designed solely for demonstration purposes, and consisting of 1 kg of the metals aluminum, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, nickel, and zinc. In addition to the absolute LCIA results, the contributions of metal production stages and individual resource extractions/emissions have been investigated. Finally, normalization and weighting have been carried out to analyze consequences of replacing ADP with the new dissipation-based methods in the context of PEF.

Results and discussion

Most recently developed LCIA methods take a long-term perspective, cover emissions of resources to the environment (and partly technosphere), and vary in the number of CFs and resources covered. The case study results obtained by ADP are dominated by the molybdenum dataset; the results of the dissipation-based LCIA methods are strongly influenced by the cobalt dataset. All results are strongly sensitive to the LCI database used (ecoinvent or GaBi). Normalization and weighting revealed that the mineral resource use impact result dominates the aggregated PEF score (57%), when using the currently recommended ADP model. Shifting from the resource extraction-based ADP to dissipation-based models can reduce the contribution to 23% or < 1% depending on the method.

The development of methods addressing mineral resource use in LCIA has shifted from resource extraction to dissipation. The analyzed methods are applicable and lead to different findings than the extraction-based ADP. Using the newly developed methods in the context of PEF would significantly change the relevance of the mineral resource use impact category in comparison to other environmental impacts.

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Mineral resource dissipation in life cycle inventories

Mineral resources in life cycle impact assessment—defining the path forward, harmonization of lca methodologies for the metal and mining industry.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

1 Introduction

In life cycle assessment (LCA) practice, impacts of resource use on the environment and human health are assessed by various impact categories, such as land use change, acidification, or eco- and human toxicity. However, assessing the impacts of resource use (in particular mineral resource use) on the availability of the resources themselves - and even the question of whether this should be assessed in environmental LCA at all - is highly controversial (Sonderegger et al. 2017 ).

An expert group of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative has reviewed 27 existing life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods, analyzed them in a criteria-based comparison, and clustered them into four categories: depletion methods, future efforts methods, thermodynamic accounting methods, and supply risk methods (Sonderegger et al. 2020 ). Based on this review and discussions at the Pellston Workshop ® 2019, a safeguard subject for mineral resources within the area of protection natural resources has been defined, LCIA methods have been recommended for relevant questions, and recommendations for future method development have been provided (Berger et al. 2020 ).

One of the key challenges identified by the expert group was the fact that current methods exclusively focus on the extraction of resources, neglecting the dissipative resource uses. The latter can be described as a use of resources that renders them inaccessible for future use. For example, an emission of metal dust into the environment resulting from the abrasion in car brakes is considered “lost” because, technologically and economically, it would be too difficult to recover. Therefore, the expert group’s final recommendation was that “the concept of dissipative resource use should be defined and integrated in future method developments” (Berger et al. 2020 ).

This call for scientific development has been addressed by various research groups. Recent methodological developments include frameworks for dissipation-based assessment of resource use (Beylot et al. 2020 ; Charpentier Poncelet et al. 2019 ), life cycle inventory (LCI) concepts (Beylot et al. 2021 ; Lai and Beylot 2022 ), and LCIA methods (Ardente et al. 2022 ; Charpentier Poncelet et al. 2021 ; Dewulf et al. 2015 ; Owsianiak et al. 2022 ; van Oers et al. 2020 ).

With a focus on LCIA, this paper aims at reviewing the abovementioned methods in a criteria-based evaluation, testing them in a case study, analyzing the implications for the product environmental footprint (PEF) (EU 2021 ), and providing recommendations for future method development. The paper is the outcome of a project conducted on behalf of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) with participation of various metal associations. First, the methods for the criteria-based literature review and for conducting the case study are introduced (Section  2 ). Subsequently, the results of the literature review (Section 3.1 ), the case study (Section 3.2 ), and the implications for PEF (Section 3.3 ) are presented. Based on the findings, conclusions are drawn and recommendations for the ongoing development of dissipation-based LCIA methods are provided (Section 4 ).

2.1 Literature review

Of the abovementioned dissipation-based methodological developments, only the applicable LCIA methods, i.e., those providing characterization factors and not conceptual frameworks only, have been selected:

Environmental dissipation potential (EDP) (van Oers et al. 2020 )

Abiotic resource project (ARP) (Owsianiak et al. 2022 )

Average dissipation rate (ADR) (Charpentier Poncelet et al. 2021 )

Lost potential service time (LPST) (Charpentier Poncelet et al. 2021 )

Price-based impact assessment (Ardente et al. 2022 )

Additionally, the established and frequently applied abiotic depletion potential (ADP) method (van Oers et al. 2002 ) has been included to serve as a non-dissipation-based reference. The six methods are reviewed, briefly summarized, and evaluated in a criteria-based comparison. For this, the evaluation scheme of the Life Cycle Initiative’s expert group on resources (Sonderegger et al. 2020 ) was used as a template. In consultation with all project partners involved (ICMM and metal associations), the scheme was modified leading to the 22 evaluation criteria shown in Table  1 .

As the terms used for the criteria “form of dissipation considered” are used differently between researchers and research communities, they are briefly defined here. Dissipative “emissions into the environment” are emissions of resources from the technosphere into the environment which render them inaccessible for other users as they cannot be recovered due to technological or financial constraints. Examples include the abrasion of metal dust from car brakes mentioned above. “Emissions within the technosphere” refer to resource flows inside the technosphere which also make them inaccessible because of too-low concentrations (e.g., alloying elements in non-functional recycling (Reller 2016 )) or too-low volumes (e.g., metals in small landfills). “Occupation in use” (also termed borrowing use) refers to resources which are currently inaccessible for other users because they are embodied in products (e.g., steel in buildings), and it is debated whether this should be considered as a form of dissipation or not (Frischknecht 2016 ). Related to that the “hibernation in use” is a form of dissipation in which resources are inaccessible because they are contained in products which are not used anymore but have not been taken to recycling facilities yet (Kapur and Graedel 2006 ). Typical examples are metals in old smart phones which users often keep at home even if they are not used anymore.

2.2 Case study

The six LCIA methods are tested in a case study on a theoretical product, designed solely for demonstration purposes, and consisting of 1 kg of the following metals: aluminum, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, nickel, and zinc. As shown in Fig. 1 , the product system was modelled in the GaBi software using the GaBi 2022.2 database (Sphera 2022 ). To model 1 kg of molybdenum, 1.5 kg of ferromolybdenum is used to consider the metal content. Out of the six LCIA methods, only ADP was included in GaBi already. The other methods were implemented manually as new environmental quantities by assigning the respective CFs to the resource emissions (e.g., aluminum emission to air) (EDP, ARP, Price) or resource extractions (e.g., bauxite mining from geologic reserves) (ADR, LPST). It should be noted that the GaBi database lists the extraction of bauxite as the elementary flow (in contrast to ecoinvent which lists aluminum), but the ADR and LPST methods provide CFs for aluminum only. In line with other resource LCIA methods (like ADP), a conversion factor of 4 (4 kg of bauxite to produce 1 kg of aluminum) has been used to determine a CF for bauxite.

Life cycle inventory model of the theoretical product analyzed in the GaBi software

To allow for a more detailed analysis of the underlying metal production system, the aggregated metal datasets have been replaced by disaggregated LCI models provided by the respective metal associations. These LCI models are the basis from which the metal datasets available in GaBi and ecoinvent are derived.

While the bill of materials of the theoretical product comprises 1 kg of each metal, it should be noted that the LCI of each metal contains the extraction and emission of several resources in different quantities resulting from the mining and refining of each metal including their background systems for electricity generation, production of auxiliaries, transport, etc. To analyze what is driving the results, the contributions of individual resource extractions or emissions to the six impact category results have been analyzed. Further, the theoretical product has been modelled again using ecoinvent 3.7 datasets (Ecoinvent 2022 ) to analyze the sensitivity of results to LCI databases.

While the focus of this study was on the cradle-to-gate datasets provided by the metal associations involved in this project, it is important to also consider a life cycle perspective as the hotspots of resource use may shift from the production (extraction impacts) to the use and end-of-life phases (dissipation impacts). Based on a material flow analysis (MFA) study quantifying dissipative losses for a set of metals throughout their life cycles (Helbig et al. 2020 ), metal-specific dissipation rates have been determined for the use phase (0–8%) and end-of-life phase (6–71%). According to Helbig and colleagues ( 2020 ), end-of-life dissipative losses end up entirely in the technosphere. It should be noted that the EDP and ARP methods consider dissipation to the environment only and the ADR and LPST methods are applied to resource extractions (see Section  3.1 ). For this reason, end-of-life dissipation has been considered in the price-based method only whose developers explicitly address dissipation into the technosphere (Ardente et al. 2022 ; Beylot et al. 2021 ). As dissipation rates can vary drastically for different products and user behaviors, a worst-case life cycle scenario has been added in which the entire metal content of the product gets dissipated to the environment.

2.3 Implications for PEF

To test the potential implications of using the newly developed dissipation-based methods in the context of the product environmental footprint (PEF) (EU 2021 ), the LCIA results have been normalized using global per capita normalization factors. These are provided by PEF (ADP), by the method developers (EDP and ARP), or by own calculations (ADR, LPST100) based on the global annual extractions multiplied by their CFs and divided by the world population. Finally, the normalized results have been weighted using the PEF weighting factor of 7.6% for mineral resource use (EF 3.0  2022 ). By aggregating the results with the other 15 normalized and weighted impact category results, the contribution of resource use measured by dissipation-based methods has been analyzed and compared to the currently recommended method (ADP).

3 Results and discussion

3.1 literature review.

Before presenting and discussing the results of the criteria-based comparison, the six LCIA methods are described by summarizing the main ideas of their characterization models.

3.1.1 Description of methods

The abiotic depletion potential (ADP) of a resource was originally defined as a ratio of a resource’s annual production to the square of the resource’s crustal content, normalized to the same ratio of the reference resource antimony leading to the common unit of antimony equivalents (Guinée and Heijungs 1995 ). The ADP of a product system is calculated by multiplying all resource extractions reported in the LCI by the respective CFs and summing the results. Thus, the method uses physical scarcity of resources in the earth crust as an indicator to measure the impact of resource use. After a data update in 2002 (van Oers et al. 2002 ), the method was revised in 2009 by separating it into two categories: ADP for fossil fuels and ADP for elements. The ADP for elements was updated in 2016 (CML-IA 2016 ) and methodologically enhanced in 2019 using recent crustal content data and cumulated production from 1970 to 2015 instead of single-year production rates which can change considerably (and thus alter the CFs) over time (van Oers et al. 2019 ). In the case study presented below, ADP is used in its 2016 version (CML-IA 2016 ), which is also implemented in the product environmental footprint (EF 3.0  2022 ).

In contrast to assessing the extraction of resources by means of ADP, the environmental dissipation potential (EDP) aims at assessing the long-term dissipative losses of resources, i.e., the emission of resources to the environment (van Oers et al. 2020 ). The characterization model, which is used to determine the CFs, is similar to the one of the original ADP method (Guinée and Heijungs 1995 ) as it comprises a ratio of resource extraction in a reference year to the squared crustal content of the resource. However, this ratio is not normalized to the ratio of antimony (in ADP of elements) but to the ratio of copper, and, thus, EDP is expressed in copper equivalents. The central assumption in the characterization model is that all resources extracted in the reference year will be dissipated in the very long-term perspective. In contrast to ADP, the CFs are not multiplied by resource extractions of the product system but by the emission of resources to the environment. It should be noted that the authors of EDP also provide conceptual characterization models to measure impacts of technosphere hibernation and occupation in use (van Oers et al. 2020 ), which are not considered in this work as applicable CFs are not available yet.

Building up on the idea of defining emissions of resources to the environment as dissipative losses, the abiotic resource project (ARP) developed a classification model to differentiate metal emissions to the environment into dissipative and non-dissipative flows (Owsianiak et al. 2022 ). The basic assumption behind this concept is that metal emissions to the environment are only dissipative if both of the following two conditions apply. First, they “originate from a source with a concentration higher than a reference (concentration in upper continental crust) reflecting what is accessible for humans within the considered time span” (Owsianiak et al. 2022 ). For example, copper leached out from a rain pipe can be dissipative, as the copper originates from a copper mine extracting the metal from geologic reserves (with a concentration higher than the average copper concentration in the upper continental crust). In contrast, copper emissions from coal-fired power plants are not dissipative flows, as the copper contained in coal is not a geologic reserve but an impurity (with a concentration lower than the average copper concentration in the upper continental crust). As a second criteria, a metal dissipation is only considered dissipative, if “the current annual rate of total anthropogenic emissions results in a steady state concentration in the receiving environment that is below a reference concentration” (Owsianiak et al. 2022 ). Hence, metal emissions (even if originating from geologic reserves) are not dissipative if the concentration in the receiving compartment is above the metal’s concentration in the upper continental crust. The ARP method is not a characterization model but a classification model, which can be combined with other emission-based characterization models. In this study, it is combined with the EDP method described above. As current LCI databases do not specify whether metal emissions originate from ores, fossil fuel impurities, or other sources, the first criteria to identify non-dissipative emissions could not be applied in the case study presented in this paper. However, for the method evaluation shown below, the method is included in its original version including both criteria.

To avoid the uncertainty related to resource emissions used as proxy for dissipative losses in current LCI databases (unclosed mass balances in some datasets, origin of emissions from resources or impurities, concentrations in receiving compartments), Charpentier Poncelet et al. ( 2021 ) follow a different approach. The authors developed two LCIA methods which use the concept of dissipation in their characterization models, but the resulting CFs are applied to the resource extraction and not resource emission inventory flows. The first method, ADR, assesses impacts of resource extraction based on their average dissipation over time, considering global average dissipation rates (ADR) which have been determined for each metal based on dynamic material flow analysis data. ADR depends on the function of resource dissipation over time and is calculated as the inverse of the total service time, which can be understood as the area below the dissipation function measured in kg ⋅ years per kg extracted. The second LCIA method, LPST, denotes the lost potential service time within a certain timespan, which is defined as the difference between the optimum service time (no dissipation, rectangular area of kg ⋅ years per kg extracted in a dissipation over time diagram) and the actual service time (area below the dissipation function, kg ⋅ years per kg extracted) within this time span (Charpentier Poncelet et al. 2021 ). In this work, a time horizon of 100 years is used, and the indicator is termed LPST100. It should be noted that these methods are based on the global average dissipation rates of resources, and the dissipation of resources extracted in the product system under study can be different. In the opinion of the author, this potential mismatch between the LCI and the LCIA levels can lead to counterintuitive results. For example, if a product system (in theory) does not have any dissipative losses, it will still show impact due to its resource extraction and the average (not product specific) dissipation rates of these resources. Vice versa, if a product is made from 100% recycled content, no resource extraction will be reported in the LCI and, thus, the LCIA result will be zero regardless of the amount of resources that gets emitted from the product system into the environment. Such results are nor “wrong,” but the difference between dissipation rates reported in the LCI (specific) and applied in the LCIA methods (average) should be kept in mind when interpreting the results.

After having proposed a new inventory scheme to clearly list dissipative resource flows in the LCI (Beylot et al. 2021 ), Ardente et al. ( 2022 ) propose a price-based impact assessment method. Assuming that market prices reflect “the multiple, complex and varied functions and values held by mineral resources” (Ardente et al. 2022 ), the authors use resource prices averaged over a 50-year timespan as CFs to assess the impact of dissipative resource losses. In this work, the CFs are applied to the emission of resources to the environment as reported in the GaBi database, as the dissipation-specific inventories (Beylot et al. 2021 ) are not available for the analyzed metals yet.

3.1.2 Criteria-based comparison

The complete evaluation of the six LCIA methods described above against the 22 criteria shown in Table  1 is presented in a spreadsheet in the supplementary material S1 . In the following, the main findings and differences between the methods are presented and discussed.

Concerning the classification scheme according to which a working group of the UNEP Life Cycle Initiative recommended methods for different questions (Berger et al. 2020 ), all methods except for the price-based method are considered to address the question: “How can I quantify the relative contribution to the depletion of mineral resources?”. This is not surprising, as dissipation directly contributes to resource depletion, and the UNEP working group recommended the development of dissipation-based methods for this question. In contrast, the price-based method addresses the question: “How can I quantify the relative (economic) externalities of mineral resource use?”.

Concerning the time scale, all methods address the long-term impacts of resource dissipation except for the price-based method. The latter assesses the short-term impacts reflected by market prices, which is consistent with the previously proposed LCI approach (Beylot et al. 2021 ). This also takes a short-term perspective and considers resource flows into waste disposal facilities or non-functional recycling as dissipative. In addition to the long-term perspective, the authors of the EDP method (van Oers et al. 2002 ) also propose (not yet operational) concepts for the short- and medium-term perspectives. Also the LPST can be calculated for different time horizons. In this context, it should be noted that the terms short-, medium-, and long-term are neither clearly nor consistently defined. Often short-term is considered as < 5–10 years, mid-term around 25 years, and long-term > 100 years (Arvidsson et al. 2020 ; Schulze et al. 2020 ) or even > 500 years (Dewulf et al. 2021 ).

The characterization models of EDP, ARP, ADR and LPST consider emissions of resources into the environment as a form of dissipation. Additionally, the conceptual methods of the EDP authors as well as the dynamic material flow models underlying the ADR and LPST characterization models define emissions into the technosphere (e.g., landfill or non-functional recycling) as dissipative. None of the methods considers occupation in use or hibernation in the technosphere (e.g., unused products such as old smartphones not taken to recycling yet) a relevant form of dissipation.

The CFs of classical resource LCIA methods, such as ADP, are applied to (multiplied by) the resource extraction flows of the LCI. In contrast, the CFs of most dissipation-based methods are applied to the emission of resources (EDP and ARP) or to flows of dissipative resource losses from specific LCIs (price-based method). Two exceptions to this are the ADR and LPST methods, whose CFs are applied to the resource extraction flows as their characterization models describe the average dissipation rates per kg extracted resource.

The characterization models (classification model for ARP) and underlying main assumptions are described above. With regard to normalization, the analysis revealed that all methods except for ADR and LPST provide applicable normalization factors (inverse of global per-capita impacts). For the latter methods, normalization factors have been calculated by using extraction data from the ADP method, multiplying the resource extractions by their corresponding ADR and LPST 100 CFs, and dividing it by the world population to obtain per capita impacts.

None of the method publications discusses the option of weighting the impact assessment results of resource dissipation to compare or aggregate them to other impacts. To illustrate the applicability and effects of weighting, the LCIA results of the theoretical product are normalized and weighted using the weighting set of the product environmental footprint (PEF) (EF 3.0  2022 ).

All LCIA methods are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The data quality of the characterization models is considered high for the extraction (ADP and EDP) and price-based models as global production, crustal content, and market prices of resources are well reported. The data quality of the other characterization models is considered medium due to uncertainties associated with the use of modelled data (fate models in ARP and dynamic material flow models in ADR and LPST). However, in both cases, it should be noted that central assumptions, such as crustal content being a proxy for ultimately extractable reserves, complete dissipation of current extraction in the long-term future, or market prices being a proxy for the value of resources are not less relevant than numeric data uncertainty.

In addition to data quality of the characterization models, the quality of the LCI data to which the CFs are connected is also important. In general, it can be said that the quality of resource extraction data needed for ADP, ADR, and LPST is higher than the quality of resource emission data, which is used as a proxy for dissipative flows into the environment. This is because resource extractions are comparatively easy to measure and well reported. In contrast, emissions of resources do not necessarily represent dissipative losses (as addressed by ARP), and the comparison of resource inputs (extraction) and outputs (emissions and product) often shows inconsistent mass balances.

Concerning the practical implementation of the LCIA methods, it can be said that all methods provide applicable CFs which are publicly available, with only ADR and LPST being not published open access. The number of CFs ranges from 18 for ADR and LPST to 108 for EDP. While ARP, ADR, and LPST cover mainly metals, the other methods also provide CFs for minerals. At this point (November 2023), the methods are not available in the LCA software with the exception of ADR and LPST being implemented in SimaPro. However, an older version of ADP (van Oers et al. 2002 ) is implemented in all of the above-mentioned LCA softwares. The effort for manually implementing the LCIA methods in the GaBi software is considered low for ADP, ADR, and LPST, as only new environmental quantities (impact categories) need to be created and CFs for the resource extraction flows need to be entered. The implementation of the other impact categories requires more effort, as the names of the elementary flows in the method publications (e.g., copper) need to be matched to a list of emissions in the software (e.g., copper [heavy metals to air], copper [heavy metals to freshwater], etc.).

3.2 Case study

The absolute impact assessment results of the theoretical product’s mineral resource use are shown in Table  2 for the production phase only, along the life cycle based on average dissipative losses during the use and end-of-life phases, and for a scenario assuming complete dissipation of the product’s metal content. Even though some categories share the same reference unit, a comparison is only possible between EDP and EDP+ARP. The 31% lower result in the latter in the production phase shows the relevance of classifying resource emissions as dissipative or non-dissipative and only including those emissions in the characterization which dissipate. It should be noted that the 31% reduction was obtained by including the second dissipation criteria only (emissions end up in a compartment below the reference concentration) as the first criteria (emission originates from a reserve) could not be applied as current LCI databases do not contain this information.

As absolute results are not comparable across impact categories and hard to interpret without comparisons, the following analysis is conducted on a relative scale to determine the contribution of the metal datasets to the result of each impact category obtained during the production phase. As shown in Fig.  2 , the “traditional” ADP is dominated by the molybdenum dataset, which plays a minor role in the results of the dissipation-based impact categories whose results are dominated by cobalt and partly nickel. Results of the EDP and EDP+ADR methods and results of ADR and LPST100 show similar patterns concerning the contribution of the individual metal datasets. The differences between these two method groups and between ADP and the price-based method can be explained by different methodological settings concerning the LCI and LCIA. While EDP, EDP+ARP, and the price-based methods use resources emitted during the production of the metals as relevant elementary flows, ADP, ADR, and LPST100 rely on resource extractions required for the metal production. Further, the characterization factors by which these elementary flows are multiplied reflect resource scarcity (ratio of extraction/dissipation to reserves in ADP/EDP), global average dissipation rates (ADR and LPST100), or market prices (price-based method). When interpreting those results, it should be kept in mind that a theoretical product is analyzed consisting of 1 kg of each of the metals, which eases comparability but does not reflect the material composition of real products in which metals like cobalt are present in much lower percentages.

Contribution of the individual metal datasets to the LCIA results in the extraction-based impact category abiotic depletion potential (ADP) and the dissipation-based impact categories environmental dissipation potential (EDP), abiotic resource project (ARP), average dissipation rate (ADR), lost potential service time (LPST), and the price-based model

In addition to aggregated metal datasets implemented in the GaBi database, some of the metal industry associations involved in this study provided disaggregated versions of their metal LCI models. In this way, the contribution of individual production stages to the total impact category results could be analyzed. As shown in Fig. S1 in the supplementary material, electrolysis is dominating the impacts in the aluminum production (except for ADR and LPST100). In contrast, the results for copper are dominated by the copper concentrate production. While for copper, the metal emissions originate from the concentration step directly, the emissions of the aluminum electrolysis are mainly caused by the Chinese electricity grid mix contained in the background system. Given that current LCI databases do not differentiate whether emissions result from geologic reserves or impurities, metal dissipation of aluminum production can be overestimated.

In addition to analyzing the contribution of production stages to total results, the contribution of individual elementary flows (resource extractions or emissions) has been analyzed for the production phase. This allows for a deeper understanding of the results because e.g., a copper dataset contains the extraction and emission of many more resources than copper in its LCI. For the impact categories applying their CFs to resource extractions (ADP and LPST100), the extraction of the target metals usually causes a relevant contribution to the LCIA result of the respective metal dataset (Fig.  3 a and b). That is, molybdenum extraction contributes significantly to the ADP result of the molybdenum dataset, and zinc extraction contributes significantly to the LPST100 result of the zinc dataset. For aluminum and cobalt, a different outcome can be observed in the ADP results, which are dominated by the extraction of copper and lead (for aluminum) and the extraction of copper (for cobalt). This can be explained by the fact that the ADP CFs for bauxite and cobalt, which denote their geologic scarcity, are relatively low compared to the CFs of the other resource extractions. In contrast, the average dissipation rates of these ores/metals are comparably high, leading to a significant contribution of these resource extractions in LPST100 (Fig.  3 b).

Contribution of resource extractions to the impact categories ADP ( a ) and LPST100 ( b ) as well as contribution of resource emissions to the impact categories EDP+ARP ( c ) and the price-based method ( d ) during the production phase

The results of the impact categories applying their CFs to resource emissions (EDP+ARP and the price-based method, shown in Fig.  3 c and d) are usually not influenced by emissions of the target metal. Only for the molybdenum dataset, the emission of molybdenum to air and freshwater contributes significantly to the EDP+ARP result. In general, the results of many metal datasets in this impact category are dominated by the emission of cadmium to freshwater (Fig.  3 c). In contrast, the results of most metal datasets in the price-based impact category are dominated by the emission of magnesium to industrial soil (Fig.  3 d). This shows that dissipative losses of the target elements (e.g., nickel emissions in the nickel dataset) are low compared to other emissions and/or that the environmental dissipation potential (EDP) and market price (price-based method) of the target metals is relatively low.

To analyze the sensitivity of the results to the LCI database, the analysis of the production phase has been repeated using metal datasets from the ecoinvent 3.7 database (Ecoinvent 2022 ). As shown in in Fig S2 in the supplementary material, results vary significantly depending on the database used. For ADP, the ecoinvent results are always larger than the GaBi results ranging from a factor of 1.2 (zinc) to 16.8 (nickel). Besides ADP, the largest differences can be found in the price-based LCIA method in which ecoinvent results can be larger by a factor of 70.2 (copper) or lower by a factor of 7.7 (nickel). For the other impact categories, results obtained by ecoinvent and GaBi vary by factors of 5 lower (cobalt) to a factor of 10.4 higher (nickel). Thus, results are highly sensitive to the database used which can be explained by data- and/or modelling-related differences. Data differences include data sources, data collection methods, reference regions, and reference years. Different modelling approaches include different tailing models or allocation procedures, to name a couple. Beyond the dissipation-based resource impact categories, the different metal emissions reported in the GaBi and ecoinvent databases will also affect the results of toxicity impact categories. However, as the toxicity potentials of metal emissions are not correlated to their dissipation potentials, differences between the GaBi and ecoinvent results in the dissipation categories are not the same as in the toxicity categories. Further, different metal components of the theoretical product (nickel in ecotoxicity and a metal mix in human toxicity) and different metal emissions (aluminum and chloride in ecotoxicity as well as arsenic and lead in human toxicity) dominate the results of the toxicity categories.

3.3 Implications for PEF

To test the implications of using the newly developed dissipation-based methods in the context of the product environmental footprint (PEF) (EU 2021 ), the LCIA results have been normalized (using global per capita normalization factors), weighted (using the EF 3.0 weighting factor of 7.6% for mineral resource use), and aggregated with the other 15 PEF impact categories. The production phase’s normalized results in Fig.  4 show that the theoretical product causes a high specific contribution in the impact categories ecotoxicity (102%) and mineral resource use (52%). This can be interpreted as the theoretical product causing the same impact as one average global citizen per year in the ecotoxicity category and half of the annual per person impact in the mineral resource category. The specific contribution in the other impact categories is negligible. The normalized results of the theoretical product along its life cycle are shown in Fig. S3 in the supplementary material.

Normalized LCIA results of the theoretical product (production phase) in the 16 PEF impact categories with mineral resource use measured by means of ADP in the default setting (left pink bar) and by the dissipation based EDP, EDP+ARP, ADR, and LPST100 models (right pink bars)

If, however, the default ADP characterization model of the impact category mineral resource use is replaced by the dissipation-based characterization models, the normalized result changes drastically. When ADP is replaced by EDP and EDP+ARP, the specific contribution is reduced from 52 to 0.03% and 0.07%, respectively. That is, the ratio of the theoretical product’s characterized resource extraction to global characterized extraction (normalized ADP) is higher than the ratio of the theoretical product’s characterized resource emission to global characterized resource emission (normalized EDP). As the underlying characterization models of ADP and EDP are similar (see Section  3.1 ) and as the low contribution cannot be explained by a larger normalization reference (because emissions do not exceed extraction), this shows that the theoretical product’s resource extraction is more relevant than its resource emission. While this is not surprising when considering the production phase only, the result is confirmed when considering the life cycle perspective (Fig. S3 a). Only if a complete dissipation of the product’s metal content is assumed, the normalized results of EDP+ARP (70%) exceeds that of ADP (Fig. S3 b).

When replacing ADP by ADR or LPST100, the normalized result decrease to 11.5% and 6.3% in the production phase (Fig.  4 ) and in both life cycle scenarios (Fig.  S3 ). This stable result shows that the additional dissipative losses occurring along the life cycle of the theoretical product do not change the ADP, ADR, and LPST100 results, which are influenced by the product system’s resource extraction only. Surprisingly, the normalized results are smaller than those obtained by ADP even though it provides a higher number of CFs (76 in ADP and 18 in ADR and LPST100) which could lead to a larger normalization reference (and thus a lower normalized result). Hence, the difference can only be explained by the different underlying characterization models (geologic scarcity compared to dissipation rates).

The differences in the normalized results are also reflected in the weighted and aggregated results shown in Fig.  5 . In the default setting of PEF using ADP as characterization model, the impact category mineral resource use is dominating the weighted result of the theoretical product’s production phase with 57%. For the underlying metal datasets, the contribution of the mineral resource use category ranges from 0.1% (aluminum) to 96.3% (molybdenum). In addition to mineral resource use, the impact category ecotoxicity also contributes notably to the weighted result (28% for the production phase). As the weighting factor for ecotoxicity is relatively low (1.9% compared to 7.6% for mineral resource use), this relatively strong contribution can be explained by the already high result obtained in the normalization step. Vice versa, the contribution of climate change to the weighted result of the theoretical product is low (3%) even though it has the highest weighting factor of 21.1%. This can be explained by relatively low greenhouse gas emission of this theoretical product system in comparison to relatively high global emissions, which lead to a low specific contribution in the normalization (Fig.  4 ).

Weighted and aggregated normalized results in the 16 PEF impact categories with the category mineral resource use assessed by means of the default model ADP ( a ) and the dissipation-based models EDP+ARP ( b ) and LPST100 ( c )

When replacing the default characterization model for mineral resource use (ADP) by dissipation-based models, which have shown different normalized results (Fig.  4 ), the absolute value of the weighted result and, thus, the relative contribution of the 16 underlying impact categories change. When switching from ADP to EDP (Fig. S4 a) or EDP+ADR (Fig.  5 b), the mineral resource use impact category becomes negligible in the weighted and aggregated results. A shift from ADP to ADR (Fig. S4 b) or LPST100 (Fig.  5 c) leads to a reduction of the contribution of resource use in the weighted result of the theoretical product and the underlying metal datasets copper, molybdenum, and zinc. However, the contribution of the mineral resource use category to the weighted results of aluminum and cobalt datasets has increased.

Considering the life cycle perspective based on average dissipative losses does not change the results of the production phase discussed above and the low relevance of the resource use impact category in the weighted total result. This is because dissipative losses during the use phase are relatively small compared to dissipation in production and because dissipative losses in the end-of-life phase occur within the technosphere, which is not considered in EDP and ARP and which does not affect ADR and LPST as they are applied to resource extraction flows. Only if a complete dissipation of the product’s metal content is assumed, different findings are obtained. First, the contribution of ADP to the total weighted result decreases from 57 to 19% because of the additional metal emissions which increase the results and contributions of the toxicity categories (Fig.  5 a). A shift to the dissipation-based LCIA methods reduces the contribution of the resource use category moderately to 8% (EDP), 5% (ADR), and 3% (LPST100). In the EDP+ARP category, even a slight increase to 24% can be observed. However, as a full dissipation of the entire product is an extreme scenario, it is justified to conclude that a shift from ADP to dissipation-based LCIA methods will lower the relevance of resource use in normalized and weighted PEF results.

4 Conclusions and recommendations

The development of methods addressing mineral resource use in LCA has shifted from resource extraction to dissipation on both the LCI and LCIA levels. The literature review and criteria-based comparison conducted in this work revealed that most of the methods’ characterization models take a long-term perspective (except the price-based model), and all of them consider dissipation into the environment, with ADR, LPST, and the price-based method additionally considering dissipation within the technosphere. This is also reflected in the methods’ LCI requirements, which usually are resource emissions and not extractions (except ADR and LPST).

The case study demonstrated that all methods are applicable and lead to different findings than the extraction-based ADP. The contributions of the individual mining and refinery process steps differ between metals but are stable across methods, which shows the relevance of these methods in identifying dissipation hotspots and resulting optimization potentials in the value chain of metal production. As the LCIs of the metal datasets include different metal extractions and emissions, the LCIA results are usually influenced by a mix of metals, with emissions of cadmium and magnesium dominating the results of EDP and the price-based method, respectively. All results are strongly sensitive to the LCI database used (ecoinvent or GaBi). Normalization and weighting revealed that using the newly developed methods in the context of PEF would significantly reduce the relevance of the mineral resource use impact category in comparison to other environmental impacts in both a production and life cycle perspective. The newly developed methods reviewed and tested in this work enable the transition from a resource extraction- to a resource dissipation-based impact assessment of mineral resource use in LCA. While this is a major achievement, future work should harmonize methodological choices such as the definition of dissipative flows (emissions to environment, emissions to technosphere, occupational use, etc.) or the considered time span (short-, medium-, long-term impacts). In parallel to LCIA developments, also advanced LCI databases are needed which provide the information required for a meaningful impact assessment (origin of emissions from geologic reserves or impurities, emissions within the technosphere, etc.). New LCI concepts (Beylot et al. 2021 ) as well as first datasets (Lai and Beylot 2022 ) are available, but large-scale implementation in commercial databases remains a challenge.

Furthermore, key methodological assumptions taken by the method developers should be discussed, including the following: all resource extractions will be dissipated in the long-term (EDP), the threshold for extraction is the average crustal content (ARP), average dissipation rates are suitable to assess product system specific resource extractions (ADR and LPST), or market prices reflect the value loss of dissipated resources (price-based method). Considering the broad range of 27 resource extraction-based and five dissipation-based LCIA methods the development of a harmonized resource dissipation LCIA method is encouraged to increase methodological consistency and to support applicability for LCA practitioners.

Data availability

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to express his sincere thanks to the method developers of the dissipation-based LCIA methods for fruitful discussions and providing (at that time partly unpublished) characterization factors. Particular thanks go to Lauran van Oers (CML), Mikolay Owsianiak (DTU), Alexandre Charpentier Poncelet, Guido Sonnemann (University of Bordeaux), Antoine Beylot (BGRM), Fulvio Ardente (JRC), and Serenella Sala (JRC). Further, the provision of datasets by and discussions with ICMM members (Claudine Albersammer, Josephine Robertson, Anne Landfield Greig, Ladji Tikana, Louise Assem, Mark Mistry, Sabina Grund, Tom Fairlie) were highly appreciated and represent a relevant contribution to this paper.

This work was funded by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM).

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Berger, M. Dissipation-based life cycle impact assessment of mineral resource use—a review, case study, and implications for the product environmental footprint. Int J Life Cycle Assess (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02318-6

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02318-6

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