PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE : WHAT IS A PRODUCT? “everything the purchaser gets in exchange for his money”

THE POSITION OF THE PRODUCT IN MARKETING MANAGEMENT : NEEDS PRODUCT WANTS PRODUCT IMAGE PRICE PERSONALITY PRESTIGE PROMOTION INCOME PLACE EDUCATION

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE : Products like living beings have a definite life span. The life cycle of human beings is characterized by certain stages like childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. The life cycle of a product consists of the following stages: 1.Introduction 2.Growth 3.Maturity and 4.Decline

: HUMAN PRODUCT BEING STAGES CHILD HOOD INTRODUCTION ADOLESCENCE GROWTH ADULTHHOOD MATURITY OLD AGE DECLINE

Product life cycle chart: Sales Research & Development Introduction Growth Maturity Saturation Decline Time

Product life cycle chart: PLC and Profits Sales/Profits PLC Profits Time Losses Break Even

INTRODUCTION STAGE : The introduction stage in preceded by “production planning and development”. This period requires greater investment. Sale will gradually start. Profit will be low. The product through advertising and other selling techniques. Steps must be taken by the market to popularise the brand name…

Growth stage: In this stage ,both sales and profit, will begin to rise. Competition may enter the market seeing prospects. The management, therefore, should try to change in approach by changing its strategy from “buy my product” “try my product”. Moderate to create brand preference. This may be done by an effective advertisement campaign.

Maturity : Both sales and profit will reach the maximum level at this stage. The manufacture introduce new models or adopt methods such as trading, to promote the sale of their brand. In economic terms this is the stage where supply exceeds demand. Some of the promotional efforts may lengthen the span of this stage but they will not offer a permanent solution.

Decline: At the final stage of decline, profit margin touch a low level. Competition becomes serves and customer start using Newer and better product. Product modification or alteration may provide solution in some cases. If that is not possible the marketer may have to abandon the product.

Conclusion : The concept of product life cycle guides the marketers in selecting the appropriate strategy for every stage. However, it is not necessary that every product should pass through all the different stages. Some products may die in the introduction stage itself. The time span in every stage will also vary from product to product…