The Product Life Cycle

The Product Life Cycle

Every product have a beginning and have an end which means they have a

life span. The stages through which individual products develop by

time is called ‘Product Life cycle’. The Product life cycle has four

major stage which are:

¨ Introduction Stage

¨ Growth Stage

¨ Maturity Stage

¨ Decline Stage

Products experience each of these stages at different times and at one

point in time a firm may also have a range of

different products at different stages in their life cycles. The

length of the product life cycle depends on technology and new

inventions. Since these are rapidly changing the life cycle of a

product is getting shorter. For example from CD players where one had

to buy CD’s today one can easily have 4 weeks of music installed on

iPods where there is no need to by CD’s but simply download music from

the internet. This means that CD Players are moving towards the

decline stage while ipods are stepping in the Growth Stage. In this

assignment I will take a look at the product life cycle of a hi-fi

system we use at home. The introduction of hi-fi systems in the

market made other products go through the decline stage or even be

pushed out from the market because hi-fi took their place. Such

products are the redifussion, and home stereos with only cassettes and

with lower sound.

After a product such as the hi-fi system have been developed and put

on the market it is said that it goes through the Introduction

Stage. Despite the very low competition since it is a new innovation,

sales are low as consumers have to still need to get to know about the

product and its benefits over other products such as the radio. Thus

a lot of promotion is needed to inform potential customers about the

advantages and uses of the new product concept. Consumers need to

know the functions of the hi-fi, that it is run by electricity, about

the power of the sound, that they can play CD’s or cassettes and that

it still conatins a radio and how it will effect their life. In order

to bring the product at this stage surely a lot of costs such as

research and development would have been incurred, and moreover other

expenses have to be done to undergo launch promotion and set up

distribution chanels. Thus price can either be high especially with

durables as n the case with the hi-fi system, which need a high

amoun...

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...mple hi-fi’s that can take more

than one CD, two compartments for the cassette and the facility to

record, adding a remote control, producing different sizes and

increasing functions. Marketing spend has to be monitored carefully,

since any significant moves are likely to be copied by competitors

such as differentiation, and price reductions. Thus if industries sets

minimum prices to avoid ‘pyrrhic’ price victory .

Although this Decline Stage have not yet been reached regarding

Hi-fi’s surely sales have decreased once other products entered the

market. Such products are CD players, iPod’s, computers that can play

a CD, portable CD and Radios. Hence the market is shrinking, reducing

the overall amount of profit that can be shared amongst the remaining

competitors. At this stage, great care has to be taken to manage the

product carefully. Ultimately, depending on whether the product

remains profitable, a company may decide to end the product.

The more a firm takes care of the marketing mix without forgetting

what the consumers are looking for, thus in a few words remaining

competitive, during the product’s existence the longer the product’s

life cycle will be.