Product Life Cycle

Good afternoon readers! 

Were you aware that all products have a life cycle? Well if you were good for you, but I wasn't! For those of you out there that also were not aware of this, I am going to inform you a little bit about it. 

There are 4 stages to a products lifestyle, they are: 

                                                              1. Introduction 

                                                                 2. Growth

                                                                3. Maturity

                                                                4. Decline 

                                     Introduction Stage 

• This stage occurs when a product is introduced to its intended target market. During this period sales grow slowly and profit is minimal. The lack of profit is often a result of large investment costs in product development.
•  Advertising and promotion in the introduction stage are often made to stimulate primary demand, the desire for the product class rather than for a specific brand.

                                        Growth Stage 

• This stage is characterized by rapid increase in sales; it is in this stage that competitors appear. The result of more competitors and more aggressive pricing is that profit usually peaks during the growth stage.
•  Also during this stage the product is changed around a lot to find what the best fit is for it. 

                                       Maturity Stage 

• This stage is characterized by a slowing of total industry sales or product class revenue; also marginal competitors begin to leave the market. Most consumers who would buy the product are either repeat purchases or the item or have tried and abandoned it. 
•  During the maturity stage, profit declines due to fierce price competition among many sellers and the cost of gaining new buyers at this stage rises

                                        Decline Stage 

• This stage occurs when sales drop; a product enters this stage not because of any wrong strategy on the part of companies but because the environment changes.
• There are two strategies that people can follow when their product is in the decline stage. These two strategies are: 
•    Deletion: Product deletion or dropping the product from the company’s product line is the most drastic strategy.
•    Harvesting: is when a a company retains the product but reduced marketing costs. The product continues to be offered but salespeople do not allocate time in selling nor are advertising dollars spent. The purpose is to maintain the ability to meet customer requests. 

   The next thing I am going to show you are the 4 aspects of this Life Cycle!  

1. Length of the Product Life Cycle 

·       There is no set time that it takes a product to move through its life cycle.

·       As a rule consumer products have shorter life cycles than business products

2. Shape of the Product Life Style

·            ·     There are several life cycle curves each type suggesting different marketing strategies.

·                     ·      The four different types are: high learning, low learning, and fashion and fad products.

•  High Learning:  one for which significant customers education is required and there is an extended introductory period.
• Low Learning: begin immediately because little learning is required by the consumer and the benefits of purchase are readily understood. Can be easily imitated by competitors so the marketing strategy is to broaden distribution quickly


• Fashion:  is a style of the time. life cycles for fashion products  frequently appear in women’s and men’s apparel .fashion products are introduced decline and then seem to return. The life of the cycles may be months, years or decades
• Fad Products: experiences rapid sales on introduction and then an equally rapid decline. These products are typically novelties and have a short life cycle         

3. The Product Level: Class and Form

           ·     A product is often important to distinguish among multiple life cycles that may exist.

• Class:  refers to the entire product category or industry such as prerecorded music
• Form: pertains to variations within the product class. for prerecorded music, product form exists in the technology used to provide the music such as cassette tapes, compact discs.

4. The life Cycle and Consumers 

          ·   The life cycle of a product depends on sales to the consumers.  Not all consumers go out and buy the product right off.

·                  ·   Several factors affect whether a consumer will adopt a new product or not. Common reasons for resisting a product in the introduction stage are

•        Usage Barriers: the product is not compatible with existing habits
•           Value Barriers: the product provides no incentive to change 
•        Risk Barriers: physical, economic or social
•       Psychological Barriers: cultural differences or images

Looking back to before I knew any of this, I can not believe my knowledge on products when I am shopping now. It is a completely different experience when I go to the store with now knowing why some products are still in, and some are out! 

It is also interesting when you look at Apple products for example. The iPhone 5 and 6 are extremely popular items BUT, the first ever iPhone is no longer even on the market!     iPhone 3            vs.            iPhone 6