Exit strategies are methods used by companies to discontinue PRODUCTs, businesses, or relationships with customers or suppliers. They are generally not considered as part of a company’s BUSINESS PLAN; rather, they are decisions made when a business plan does not work as anticipated. One of the trends in the United States is RELATIONSHIP MARKETING—development and maintenance of long-term, cost-effective exchange relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, and partners. Most businesspeople are optimists, rarely accepting the end of a project, product, or enterprise. An often-neglected part of relationship marketing is establishing when, how, or on what terms the relationship will end. Exit strategies devised in advance are like prenuptial agreements, easing the pain of breaking up. Exit strategies are important because they influence consumers’ and business partners’ image of a company. In the 1970s, when Texas Instruments announced it was abandoning its line of early computer equipment, many consumers expressed distrust for the company. It took decades for the company to recover its reputation. Marketers recognize most products and product categories go through what is known as the PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE (PLC)—market stages that include introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Exit strategies are part of the decline stage. Generally as sales and PROFITs decline, firms can sell the product line to another company, create a separate company (called spinning-off), or abandon the product line. Which exit strategy is chosen depends on market conditions, the current status of the product line, and company resources. Sometimes products in the decline stage gain new life as “retro” products sought out by a small number of loyal consumers. These consumers are often willing to pay more for the product, creating a profitable niche market. For example, the Coca-Cola Company still sells Tab, their early diet drink, even though sales represent less than 1 percent of Diet Coke sales. A small, vocal group of consumers continues to prefer Tab, and rather than chance losing those customers to their rival Pepsi, Coca-Cola continues to produce the soda.