What is the product life cycle?

What is the product life cycle?

What is the product life cycle? It is known that the product life cycle is a description of the stages of the product’s life from the beginning of the product launch to its discontinuation. It is a strategy that helps all companies to develop the product and good planning for products, goods and services. This is what we will talk about in today’s article. We will talk about the stages. And product life cycles in detail.

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What is the product life cycle?

• Indicates The term product life cycle The length of time a product is presented to consumers in the market until it is removed from shelves.
• The product life cycle is divided into four stages – introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.
• This concept is used by management and marketing professionals as a factor in determining when it is time to increase advertising, lower prices, expand into new markets, or redesign packaging.
• The process of developing strategies for ongoing product support and maintenance is called product lifecycle management.
• A product life cycle is the amount of time a product takes from being put on the market until it is removed from the shelves.
• The six stages of the product life cycle are development, introduction, growth, maturity, decline, and rejection.
• The concept of the product life cycle helps inform business decision-making, from pricing and promotion to expansion or cost reduction.
• Newer, more successful products push older products out of the market.

 How does the product life cycle work?

1. Products, like people, have life cycles. A product starts with an idea, and is unlikely to go any further within the confines of a modern business.
2. Until it undergoes research and development and becomes feasible and profitable.
3. In this stage, the product is produced, marketed and launched.
4. As mentioned above, there are six generally accepted stages in the product life cycle – development, introduction, growth, maturity, decline, and rejection.
5. Introduction: This stage generally involves a significant investment in advertising and a marketing campaign focused on educating consumers about the product and its benefits.
6. Growth: If the product is successful, it moves to the growth stage.
7. This is characterized by increased demand, increased production and expanded availability.
8. Maturity: This is the most profitable stage, while production and marketing costs decrease.
9. Decline: The product takes on increased competition as other companies emulate its success—sometimes with improvements or lower prices.
10. The product may lose market share and begin to decline.
11. When a product is successfully introduced into the market, its demand increases, and hence its popularity increases.
12. These newer products end up effectively removing older products from the market and replacing them.
13. Companies tend to rein in their marketing efforts as a new product grows.
14. This is due to the low cost of producing and marketing the product.
15. When demand for a product wanes, it may be completely removed from the market.

What is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)?

Product lifecycle management (PLM) refers to handling a good as it moves through the typical stages of a product's life: development, introduction, growth, maturity, decline, and rejection.

This process involves manufacturing and marketing the good. The concept of the product life cycle helps inform business decision-making, from pricing and promotion to expansion or cost reduction.

What are the benefits of product life cycle management?

• Proper product life cycle management has many benefits, such as getting the product to market faster.
• Bringing a higher quality product to market, improving product safety, increasing sales opportunities, and reducing errors and waste.
• Specialized computer software is available to help manage the life of a product with functions such as document management, design integration, and process management.

Other benefits include:

1. Improve product quality and reliability.
2. Lower prototyping costs.
3. More accurate and timely quote requests (requests from suppliers).
4. Quickly identify sales opportunities and revenue contributions.
5. Save by reusing the original data.
6. A framework for product improvement.
7. Waste reduction.
8. Improved ability to better manage seasonal fluctuations.
9. Improve forecasting to reduce material costs.
10. Maximize supply chain collaboration.

What are the stages of the product life cycle?

In general, there are six stages of the product life cycle, from product development to its consumption and final retirement from the market.

Product development and innovation

1. The development stage of the product life cycle is the research stage before putting the product on the market.
2. This happens when companies bring in investors, develop prototypes, test the effectiveness of the product, and develop a launch strategy. Due to the nature of this stage, companies spend a lot of money without generating any revenue because the product has not yet been sold.
3. This stage can last a long time, depending on the complexity of the product, how new it is, and the competition.
4. For a completely new product, the development phase is difficult because the first pilot of the product is usually not as successful as subsequent iterations.

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Initial product launch

• Once the product is developed, the first stage is the introduction stage.
• At this stage, the product is released to the market. When a new product is launched, it is often a risky time in the product life cycle – although it does not necessarily make or break the product in the end.
• During the introduction phase, marketing and promotion are at a high level – the company often invests more in promoting the product and getting it into the hands of consumers.
• Apple is a famously innovative company and makes a lot of noise with its new product launches, highlighting new features of its new (or soon-to-be-launched) products.

the growth

1. By the growth stage, consumers have already moved on to the product and are increasingly purchasing it. The product concept has been proven and is becoming more popular and sales are rising.
2. Other companies became aware of the product and its market space, which increasingly began to attract attention and generate revenue.
3. If competition for the product is particularly high, the company may continue to invest heavily in advertising and promoting the product to beat out competitors.
4. As a result of product growth, the market itself tends to expand.
5. The product is usually modified in the growth stage to improve functionality and features.