Product Life Cycle and its suggestion

 

The time span between a product's initial release to consumers and its eventual withdrawal from the market is known as its life cycle. Four stages—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline—are typically used to describe a product's life cycle.

Management and marketing experts consult product life cycles to help them decide on advertising schedules, price points, the expansion of their product lines into new markets, the redesign of their packaging, and other factors. Product life cycle management is the name for these strategic means of sustaining a product. They may also provide insight into the readiness of newer products to displace more established ones from the market.

How a product is marketed to consumers depends on the various stages of its life cycle. When a product is successfully introduced to the market, demand and popularity should increase, driving out competitors' older products. Marketing efforts are reduced as the new product gains traction, and production and marketing expenses are reduced as a result. As a product moves from maturity to decline, demand dwindles and the product may be taken off the market, possibly to be replaced by a newer alternative.

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A product's potential could be missed and its shelf life could be shortened if the four stages of the life cycle aren't managed, which can help increase profitability and maximise returns.

Professor of marketing Theodore Levitt asserted in the Harvard Business Review in 1965 that the innovator stood to lose the most since many new products fail during the early stages of the product life cycle. As investments in R&D and production have already been made, these failures are especially expensive. Due to this, many businesses shy away from true innovation in favour of waiting for someone else to create a successful product before copying it.

Stages

A product's life cycle has the following four stages:

Market Establishment and Growth

This stage of the product life cycle involves creating a market strategy, typically by spending money on marketing and advertising to inform consumers about the product and its advantages.

Sales are typically slow during this phase as demand is being created. Depending on the complexity of the product, how new and innovative it is, how well it meets customer needs, and whether there is any competition in the market, this stage may take some time to complete. There is plenty of evidence that products can fail at this stage, preventing stage two from being reached, but a new product development that is tailored to customer needs is more likely to succeed. This is why many businesses prefer to improve an existing product and market their own version rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

Expanding Market

When a product successfully completes the market introduction phase of its life cycle, it is prepared to move on to the growth phase. An increase in production and wider distribution of the product should result from rising demand.

 

As the product takes off, the gradual expansion of the market introduction and development stage abruptly changes to an upturn. During this time, rival companies might enter the market with their own variations of your product, either as exact replicas or with some improvements. As consumers have more options, branding becomes crucial to maintaining your position in the market. In the face of escalating competition, product pricing and availability in the market become crucial factors to maintain sales.

Age of the Market

Since a product has already gained some traction in the market, it will now cost less to make and market the current offering. Market saturation is starting to set in as the product life cycle reaches this advanced stage. As a result of the product's widespread consumer adoption and the emergence of rival brands, differentiation in terms of product quality, price, and branding will become even more crucial to retaining market share. In contrast to what they might have done in stage one, retailers will now act as stockists and order takers rather than attempting to promote your product.

Market Recession

The life cycle will eventually start to decline as competition increases and other businesses try to imitate your success by adding more features to their products or lowering their prices. Another factor that contributes to decline is when new innovations replace your current product. For example, horse-drawn carriages fell out of favour when the automobile replaced them.

Since there is no longer any opportunity for profit due to market saturation, many businesses will start to move on to new endeavours. Of course, some businesses will endure the downturn and keep selling the product, but production will probably be on a smaller scale, and costs and profit margins may decrease. Consumers may also abandon a product in favour of a fresh substitute, though this can occasionally be reversed when previous trends and fashions resurface to spark interest in a discontinued item. You can avail Marketing assignment help while writing assignments on Market Recession.

Strategic Management of the Product Life Cycle

Your product's life cycle in the market can be extended with the help of a properly managed product life cycle strategy.

With the setting of prices, the strategy gets going as soon as the market is introduced. The practise of "price skimming," in which a high initial price is set and subsequently decreased to "skim" various consumer groups as the market expands, is one possibility. As an alternative, you can choose price penetration, in which case you set the price low to quickly penetrate as much of the market as you can, then raise it once you've done so.

To appeal to the target market, both product packaging and advertising are crucial. Additionally, in order to expand your revenue stream, you must market your product to new demographics.

Conclusion

Companies can determine whether their products are meeting the needs of the target market by understanding the life cycle of a product. This knowledge enables them to determine when they may need to shift their focus or create something new.

 

A company can change the focus of its product to ensure continued success in the market by analysing a product in relation to market needs, competitors, costs, and profits.

By anticipating a product's decline, you can keep your business from becoming overly dependent on a dwindling market and falling behind. By using a product life cycle strategy, you can revamp an existing product, create a new replacement product, or take a different path to keep up with a shifting market.

Knowing when a product is declining helps your business avoid becoming overly dependent on a dwindling market. According to a product life cycle strategy, you can revamp an existing product, create a new replacement product, or take a different path to keep up with a shifting market.

While every product has a lifespan, many of the most popular ones can stay in the mature stage for a considerable amount of time before eventually declining. Take make my assignment help from Website experts.