What is the product life cycle?

The method describes, as the name says, the life cycle of your product. Just as you go through childhood, youth, adulthood and old age, your product goes through something similar. In the model, the product's four stages are called:

• Introduction
• Growth
• Maturation
• Decline

The four phases are characterized by:

The introductory phase

• The product is introduced to the market
• High marketing effort with the aim of creating awareness of the product.
• Requires a high marketing effort
• Few customers, low sales
• Expenses greater than income

The growth phase

• Product sales increase dramatically.
• More competitors are interfering
• High marketing effort, which is mainly about differentiating the product from those of the new competitors.
• Spread the word to more potential customers

The maturation phase

• The product is established on the market
• Lower production costs and lower prices
• The product can remain in this phase for a long time

Development of new products to complement or replace the mature product

The decline phase

• Declining profits
• The market is saturated, market shares move only slightly.
• Investments are minimized
• The product is discontinued when it is no longer profitable

4 strategies to extend the ripening phase

As can be seen, the maturation phase is the most profitable phase, where companies try to earn what the development and marketing of the product has cost. It is therefore also natural that companies are interested in extending the maturation phase.

Mind Tools describes four strategies typically used to extend the ripening phase.

1. Get your customers to use your product more often
2. Expand or update product features
3. Using discount and promotional campaigns to attract customers who use another brand
4. Create an advertising campaign offering (taste) samples to attract customers who do not use this type of product at all.

Problems with the Product Life Cycle theory

Although the theory has gained wide acceptance in the marketing world, it has critics who say there are so many exceptions and so few rules that it is meaningless. Some of the criticisms mentioned are:

• There is no fixed interval where a product stays in each phase. Each product is different and therefore moves through the four stages at different times.
• There is no proof that all products have to die. Some products move, e.g. from maturity back to growth thanks to an improvement or re-design. Some believe that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when you say that a product must reach the decline phase.
• Theories focus on individual products rather than taking into account larger brands.
• The theory does not properly account for a product's re-design or reinvention.