Download Product Life Cycles

Product Life
Cycles
(Review)
Ms. Sidi
Review
 Product life cycle (PLC) describes changes in consumer
demand over time
 5 stages
 Introduction
 Growth
 Maturity
 Decline
 Decision point
Time
Introduction Stage
 Focus: Launching the product, and introducing it to the
market
 Target consumers: Early adopters or trendsetters (these are
the people who like to purchase new products)
 Advertising strategy: Celebrities
 Other strategies:
 Pull: Ads, samples, coupons, promotions
 Push: product placement in retail stores, low prices, etc.
Growth Stage
 Focus:
 Advertising and word of mouth is crucial to make the product more
visible.
 If the product does not catch it, it may be scrapped
 Target consumers: Early adopters or trendsetters, and their
followers
 Strategy:
 Companies using the push strategy do well here (low prices, retail
displays, etc.)
 New features are added and price drops
Maturity Stage
 Focus:
 Promote the name of the product to remind the consumer of its
features and history
 Large profits are available that may be used to develop more
products
 Target consumers: Late adopters
 Strategy: Brand reputation is used to promote other products
(e.g. Coke  Coke Zero; Pepsi  Pepsi Max)
Decline Stage
 Focus: Marketers determine what is causing the decline
 Target consumers: Unable to find new customers
 Strategy:
 Might try and reverse the process by changing price, ads, design, etc.
 May remove product from market
Decision-Point Stage
 Focus: Determine the future of the product based on research
 Strategy: May formulate, repackage, reintroduce
 “New and improved”
 New features (or even new uses!)
 Sell with other products
Nontraditional Product Life
Cycles
 Fads: product that is highly popular for a short time only
 E.g. Rubik’s cube, Furby
 Trends: last longer than fads
 E.g. Healthy food choices
 Niche Markets: products with short growth stage, and
consistent maturity stage
 Seasonal Markets: Markets that change by the season
 E.g. Ice-cream sales, snow blowers
It’s time for…
Product Life Cycle Version
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