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I. PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

A way to trace the stages of a product's acceptance
from its introduction to its demise.
One of the most familiar concepts in marketing
A prevalent marketing management tool
Refers to the life of the product category
The time a product category spends in a stage of the
product life cycle may vary from a few weeks to
decades.
Does not predict how long a product category will
remain in any one stage

• A tool to help marketers understand

• where their product is now
• what may happen

• which strategies are normally appropriate.

A. Introduction Stage
Sales grow slowly Profit is minim
Create awareness Stimu
 High production costs Limited pro
Frequent product modification Penetrati
Skimming pricing Little co
High failure rate, High mark
Promotion strategy focuses on primary demand for th
developing product awareness Informing about
Intensive personal selling to retailers and wholesa

B. Growth Stage
Characteristics
Many comp
Sales grow at an increasing rate.
m
Large companies may acquire small
Profits
pioneering firms.
Promotion emphasis
heavy brand advertising Differences
Gaining wider distribution is a key go
Toward the end of this stage
prices normally fall profits re
Development costs have been Sales volu
recovered econom
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C. Maturity Stage
 Sales continue to increase but at a The marketpl
decreasing rate sa
An emphasi
Annual models of many products
rather t
marginal c
Product lines are widened or extended
dropping o
Heavy promotions to both the dealers
Prices and p
and consumers are required.
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D. Decline Stage
Signaled by a long-run drop Falling demand forces m
in sales. of the ma
The rate of decline is
governed by
a. how rapidly consumer A few small specialty
tastes change or manufacture the
b. how rapidly substitute
products are adopted.
Strategies
Dropping a product from th
Deletion.
line, is the most drastic stra
Company retains the produ
Harvesting
marketing support
To prevent slipping into o Promote more freq
 product by current cus
o Find new target ma
o Find new uses for t
o Price the product b
decline o Develop new distri
o Add new ingredien
o Delete old ingredie
o Make a dramatic ne