Product life cycle

Product life cycle
Product life cycle is the sequence of stages that a product passes through in its life. Just like human beings have stages in their lives which include: birth, growth, maturity, decline and death a product also passes through different stages in its life. The stages include introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Each stage impacts the market differently leading to a change in the market mix and strategy used to market the product. The life cycle portrays that:
The product has a limited life
The product has to pass through different stages that are problematic and challenging to the seller but they also pose different opportunities.
The product also requires different strategies in terms of marketing, purchasing, human resource, financing and manufacturing in every stage.
The product lifecycle can be represented in terms of profits and sales. In the first stage called product development, the profit is zero as there are no sales and the investment costs increase. In the second stage namely introduction of the product in the market, the growth of sales is slow and the cost of the introduction is high thus there are no profits at this stage. In the growth stage, the profits increase as the product gains acceptance in the market. The maturity stage which is the fourth stage is when the product has already gained acceptance at this stage the profits decline or level off due to the high costs incurred in maintaining a competitive advantage the sales also decline. The last stage known as the decline stage, the product’s sales and profit decline. Some products do not follow this cycle and the time a product stays at one stage varies from product to product. Some product can reach the decline stage and then recycle back to the growth stage due to repositioning or promotion Other products like Microsoft enjoy constant growth because of advertising and improvement of the product’s quality thus maintaining its customers.
A business can extend the life cycle of a product before it reaches the last stage by use of different strategies such as advertising, addition of value, new or different packaging, price reduction or exploring new markets. A manufacturing company can use product lifecycle management and lean manufacturing practices to improve the manufacturing operations and to reduce costs. A lifecycle analysis needs to be done on the product so as to improve on the service life of individual product component....