Definition of product pruning

discontinuation of a product or brand in response to declining demand or insufficient financial returns. Product pruning enables the marketer to dedicate its resources to its best products or brands. The marketer must first evaluate whether a product or marketing mix modification could revive demand for the ailing product. Innovative and multibrand companies do a better job of product pruning than companies who have relied too much on one product or brand. A product may be pruned gradually by discontinuing all promotion expenditures and milking the market for any remaining demand. The declining product may also be sold to a competitor or sold in limited quantities to a market segment with self-sustaining demand.