What Is the Product Life Cycle?
What is the Product Life Cycle?
The product life cycle, or PLC, refers to the journey a product or brand goes through from its creation to its extinction. It begins the moment a product launches, and ends when that product is finally taken off the shelves for good.
The reason it’s beneficial to know about the product life cycle is because depending on which stage of it your business is currently in, you’ll want to take a different approach with your marketing.
Stages of the Product Life Cycle
Product Development
This first life cycle stage (product development) encompasses everything leading up to the product’s launch, from ideation to building and refining the product. This phase is characterized by rigorous research and development and, depending on the product, can last for years.
Many products never make it past this stage, but products with strong product-market fit have the best chances for success and reaching the maturity phase.
Product Introduction to Customers
Now that your product is through the initial marketing development process, it’s ready for the next life cycle stages – introduction to the market.
The introduction stage is all about building brand awareness through various marketing efforts and advertising, perhaps like a concentration on distribution channels or reception. The design will play an
important role here. Visual details such as a unique color palette tied to the brand’s emotions or tailored fonts aid in brand recognition and recall. This recall is critical in creating the initial buzz for a brand. Products that don’t generate enough buzz or drum up strong enthusiasm risk failing in the market.
Product Growth
Depending on its success after entering the market, your product may now be in the much-anticipated growth stage. Products in this stage have met the digital market need and have been well received by customers. As sales and profits increase, companies can invest more resources into building brand awareness and increasing market share.
The growth phase of the product life cycle is essential for organizations that need to beat past sales on an iterative basis to become profitable. This growth stage is also when organizations invest in better consumer support and can collect customer feedback in a formalized process.
Product Maturity
In the maturity stage, company goals shift from building market share to maintaining it. Although the previous stage known as the growth phase, that does not mean a product stops growing when it reaches the maturity phase.
At this point, the product well established and things like distribution channels are solidified and optimized. Brand awareness is strong and the volume of sales is at an all-time high. However, this means that competitors are more aware of your product than ever before. Increased competition means companies must differentiate and diversify in the maturity stage.
Decline
Unfortunately, if your product doesn’t become the preferred brand in a marketplace, you’ll typically experience a decline. Sales will decrease during the heightened competition, which is hard to overcome. If a company is at this stage, they’ll either discontinue their product, sell their company, or innovate and iterate on their product in some way.
Benefits of what adherence to the Product Life Cycle model can do:
- Allow decision making with better support
- Optimize marketing investments
- Qualify sales efforts
- Offer more control over results
- Give better long term strategic planning
- Offer better organization and process management
- Provide more longevity for products
- Give more appropriate preparation to face competition
- Leading the market becomes a feasible goal