The document discusses the product life cycle, which describes the stages a product goes through from introduction to decline. There are typically four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Each stage presents distinct opportunities and challenges for marketing strategy and profitability. Products require different marketing, manufacturing, and personnel strategies depending on what stage they are in within their life cycle. Understanding the product life cycle framework helps companies develop effective strategies for each phase as a product progresses through its life.

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2. Product Life Cycle
• Like human beings, products too have a
life span
• Product goes through varied stages from
inception to decline
• Death of a product refers to when it stops
generating sales and profits
• In each stage there are distinct
opportunities and problems with respect
to marketing strategy and profit potential.
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3. Continued
• Products require different marketing,
financing, manufacturing, purchasing and
personnel strategies in the different stages
of their life cycle.
• The PLC concept provides a useful
framework for developing effective
marketing strategies in different stages of
the Product Life Cycle.
• There are four stages in the Product Life
Cycle – introduction, growth, maturity and
decline.
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5. Introduction
• Product is launched in the market
• Very few buyers of the product
• Low sales, low/no profit
• Distribution and promotion expenses are
high
• Skimming strategy/ Penetration strategy
• Little or no competition
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6. Growth
• Costs reduced due to economies of scale
• Sales volume increases significantly
• Profitability begins to rise
• Public awareness increases
• Competition begins to increase with a few
new players in establishing market
• Increased competition leads to price
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7. Maturity
• Costs are lowered as a result of production
volumes
• Sales volume start slowing down and market
saturation is reached
• Increase in competitors entering the market
• Prices tend to drop due to the proliferation of
competing products
• Brand differentiation and feature diversification
is emphasized to maintain or increase market
share
• Focus on modification should be given
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8. Decline
• Sales decline and eventually dip
• Technological advances, consumer changes in
tastes and acute competitions
• Firms withdraw from the market
• They may drop smaller market segments
• Reduce the promotion budget and prices
• Companies need to pay more attention to their
aging products
• Management must decide whether to maintain,
harvest, or drop
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9. Limitations
• PLC stages do not have predictable duration. It may very
from product to product.
• The marketer cannot tell at what stage the product is in
as there is no definite line of demarcation between one
stage to another stage.
• Not all products pass through all the stages. It is possible
that the product may travel to the first and second stage
and die out.
• A product may not be in an identical stage in all the
market segments; it may be in the second stage in one
segment, whereas in the third stage in another segment
at a particular point of time.
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