Today I would like to discuss the product life cycle of products, we must be aware that all products have a life cycle, the length of products life cycle depends on the type of product, levels of competition, marketing support and customer taste. The image below shows the different stages of a products life cycle.
It is important to remember that in the development stages of a product vast amount of cash in terms of design, production and advanced promotion. A product life cycle consists of a number of stages, these stages are, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. In the introduction stage the product is new to the market so sales may start up slowly therefore marketing strategies should be used to raise awareness on the target audience, this will encourage sales and build an image for that product. After this stage the product will move into growth as more people become aware of the product, if the market is proving lucrative, new competitors will try to enter the market and pose a threat to the original company. In the maturity stage sales will gradually stabilise and remain constant, promoting at this stage is still needed to remind consumers of why they will benefit from purchasing that product, we can for example look at how Nike and Coca Cola still promoting their products through advertising. Following maturity is the decline stage, where sales start to fall at this stage organisations can withdraw the product, however not all let their products into the decline stage, as they employ extension strategies, which extend the life of their product prolonging the maturity stage. As on the picture below.
We can for example note how major organisations usually utilise this strategy by changing aesthetics, Coca Cola for example have had many different styles to their bottles, another good example is how car manufactures change the design of their current models maybe by adding a sports version, or a model which has a higher horse break or interior look. Other different strategies used by companies to extend their products life time are, finding a new market for the product, researching into areas which could be further developed and also reducing prices or having other forms of promotion. - Source: Gorchels, L (2011). The Product Manager’s Handbook: The Complete Product Management Resource. United States: McGraw-Hill.
Picture: Extension strategy mgmt280.blogspot.com/product-life-cycle-extension (Last accessed 7th Jan 2012)
Picture: Coca Cola www.google.co.uk/imgrescocacolabottles (Last accessed 7th Jan 2012)
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