What is the product life cycle?
The PLC indicates that products have four things in common: (1) they have a limited lifespan; (2) their sales pass through a number of distinct stages, each of which has different characteristics, challenges, and opportunities; (3) their profits are not static but increase and decrease through these stages; and (4) the financial, human resource, manufacturing, marketing and purchasing strategies that products require at each stage in the life cycle varies (Kotler and Keller, 2006). Whilst there is a common pattern to a product's life cycle, which is bell-shaped in nature, this pattern does vary depending on the specific characteristics of a given product. These life cycle patterns are illustrated and discussed in the subsequent section.
What are the main aspects of the product life cycle?
The typical PLC consists of five main aspects: (1) product development; (2) introduction; (3) growth; (4) maturity; and (5) decline. In the diagram below, the respective sales (in red) and profits (in blue) across these five stages are illustrated.
The PLC begins with product development, during which time the firm devises and creates a new product. Whilst the end aim of this development process is to have a profitable, well-performing product on the market, this initial stage is characterised by zero sales, the firm bearing the costs of such development, typically resulting in negative profitability (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). Recent product developments include the likes of the iPod by Apple and the Serene by Bang and Olufsen. However, despite the importance of the product development process, the PLC literature tends to focus on the subsequent four stages, which are discussed in more detail belo...
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...ons to the common PLC, the concept can also be used to describe (1) fads, (2) fashion, and (3) style. Fads are fashions that are introduced and adopted very quickly, but just as quickly can fall. They typically have a limited following, but are nonetheless adopted with real zeal, such as the hula-hoop. Fashions grow more slowly but still quite quickly before eventually witnessing a decline. However, in some cases these become a style; that is, they come back into fashion. For example, Beanies and Yo-Yos were in fashion during the 1950s and 1960s respectively before largely dropping off the radar until the 1990s when both products witnessed a revival (Kotler et al., 1996; Kotler and Keller, 2006).
Product life cycle is an important marketing concept which divides the sales history of a product into distinctive stages (Vashisht, 2005). These different stages would present their own opportunities and opportunities and thus call for different strategies for marketing practitioners. Generally, a product would goes through four stages including introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Home theatre products seem to head towards its declining stage with its sales dropped by about 10% in 2012 in Australia (Euromonitor International, 2013). Its profit is also dropping with more generous pricing competition in this market. However, there is a new trend emerging that could transform the competition landsc...
The five stages of the product life cycles begins with the Product development stage when the company finds and develops a new product idea. The second stage is the Introduction and is the period of slow sales growth as the product is presented in the market. The third stage is the Growth and is the period of rapid market acceptance and increasing profits. The fourth stage is Maturity and is the period of slowdown in sales growth because the product has achieved acceptance by most potential buyers. The fifth and final stage is Decline and is the period when sales fall off and profits
Although the trends generally come and go very quickly, there are always those few which will remain forever and eventu...
A year ago, the executives at my company began planning on the restructuring of how our products would be managed through the various cycles of planning, development, and execution. This process is called Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM). PLCM promised to deliver the following:
Western has multiple sport programs that are compatible with this question. However I am going to discuss the swim team because of my connection I can easily see the connections with the sport product tonium. Tangibility it the first attribute to the spectrum. In regards to swimming there are multiple things that fall into this category. Their is the actually apparel on their body that is needed such as the swimsuit, the goggles, and the swim cap. Then there's the equipment that is used during practice such as the pull buoy, fins, paddles, five gallon buckets, and bungies. These are all tools that are used to enhance the training. Then there’s the travel apparel they have specific pants, jackets, shoes and bags and swimsuits that are used
Profits are nonexistent because of the heavy expenses of product introduction. Growth stage: a period of rapid market acceptance and substantial profit improvement.
Summarize a minimum of 3 benefits a company might obtain from the globalization of markets.
A sophomore says, “I try to dress the same as my social group.” But keeping up with the trends isn 't always the easiest thing for a highschooler. Staying up to date with the trends costs money, and if you don’t have a job then you have to wait for the holidays to roll around to ask for the newest clothes as gifts during the holiday season or during your birthday. The same sophomore says, “It’s hard to keep up with the trends at school because there are so many new trends all of the time and they can get expensive.” But just because you may not be able to buy the latest clothes to keep up with trends doesn 't mean that you can’t create your own. “A trend that I have started is wearing fuzzy socks with leggings in the winter, and I 've seen quite a few people follow it.” Said anonymous. In a small school like Central De Witt, trends tend to catch on pretty
We also focus on product life-cycle of the business goods. The stages the product undergoes from manufacturing packaging until the final stage where it focuses on time, cost and revenue generated. In the initial stage of the product, promotion is done to create awareness of the product. In this juncture profits are not a big concern of the company.
The Business Life Cycle is a versatile term that applies to the lifetime of a business. There are seven phases in the business life cycle. The four main phases of the business life cycle are the Establishment, Growth, Maturity and Post Maturity phases. The Establishment phase is when a company is first established. This is also called the start-up phase. This is when businesses are at their most vulnerable and have to get onto a solid foundation. Profit and sales usually begin slowly and there is a high degree of uncertainty. The Growth phase is the second phase in the business life cycle. This is usually where sales increase and cash flow is normally positive. There are regular customers which means a higher profit and an increase in sales. Many businesses have been stuck in the growth phase for many years yet some have been in it for only a short while. The Maturity phase generally presents unique challenges to a business. There are very tough decisions to be made by the owner and a great deal of rethinki...
“Trend can be defined as something new evolving, mostly leaning, with inclined line of growth. Hence fashion trend is the latest evolvement of the fashion industry” (Fibre2fashion.com, 2014).
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, fashion is widely accepted as a “constantly changing popular trend”, especially in the style of clothing. Nowadays fashion is regarded superficially, favoring to be frivolous for wearing something to keep up with trends. Nevertheless, fashion can also carry a more complex
Development of the iPod: The iPod is a portable digital music player that holds up to ten thousand songs in a small, hand-held device that is lighter and thinner than two CD cases. iPod features a touch-sensitive navigational wheel and buttons, and an intuitive interface designed for one-handed operation. Songs are stored in several digital audio formats, delivering the highest sound quality. The iPod was born out of the idea dreamed up by Tony Fadell, an independent contractor and hardware expert, to take an MP3 player, build a Napster music sale service to complement it, and build a company around it. Fadell shopped the idea around to several companies and was turned away by all of them, except Apple. Apple hired Fadell in early 2001 and assigned him a team of about 30 people to develop the iPod. Fadell predicted that the iPod would remold Apple and that 10 years from now it would be a music business, rather than a computer business.
In the 1990’s BPR was an extremely hot topic among many organisations. The markets were changing rapidly as new technologies were being introduced across
The main challenges in the manufacturing companies are in the following stage of product development.