Product Lines and Chevy

What is a product line and how can it help a business? A product line is the group of products that a company or division of a company sales. The purpose of a product line is to have many similar products that appeal to a wide variety of customers. A great example of a product line is the Chevy division of General Motors. They have small cars that appeal to the "green" people such as the Aveo or the Cobalt. They have sporty cars for the "thrill seekers" such as the Corvette or the Camero. They have the Malibu or the Impala for the "family." Chevy also has other categories such as trucks, SUVs, crossovers, and vans which hit other groups of people.
A product line can help you business by bringing in a wide variety of customers. I personally would never buy a small car such as an Aveo but I would buy an Impala. In this example of Chevy you can see that someone who is looking for a car with more space can still buy a car from the same place as a person looking for a small car. With a large product line a business can basically make anyone a customer. A company can use an "Upward Line Stretch," "Downward Line Stretch," "Contract," or "Fill Out." An upward line stretch is where a company adds a more expensive product, a downward line stretch is where a company adds a less expensive product, a contraction is where a company drops a product from the product line, and a filling out is where a company adds a similar product to the already existing product line. Looking back at Chevy a smaller car might be considered a downward stretch where as a Corvette might be considered an upward stretch. The Malibu and the Impala might be similar enough that they would be considered a filling out. On the other hand cars such as the Monte Carlo or the Nova have been dropped and so this would be a contraction. Many products are dropped because they either don't sell enough of them or a new and improved product has been added to take its place.
That is what a product line is and how it can help a business.