Essay About Product Life Cycle And Growth Stage Of The Product Life Cycle

Business
Unit 41. Product life cycle and portfolio analysis:What is the product life cycle?•It’s a theory that all products follow a similar pattern over time, of development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline.•It shows the sales of a product over time.•Many products don’t even make it as far as being launched. They turn out not to be financially viable for a budding entrepreneur or it’s simply too hard to gain entry into a market (these are 2 of the main causes for this).•Even well-established firms find that new ideas won’t, in theory, prove to be commercially viable, for example: Cadbury’s rejects 20 new product ideas for every one that reaches the market. •Thousands of products are taken out of production each year because they fail to hit initial sales targets and are unable to reach the growth stage of the product life cycle.  What use is the product life cycle?•It helps managers plan their marketing activities. Marketing managers must adjust their marketing mix at different stages of the product life cycle.•In the intro phase, promotion may focus on increasing brand awareness; in the maturity phase it may focus more on product differentiation in order to remain competitive in a growing market. •At the beginning of the life cycle, a technologically advanced product may be launched with a high price (eg. iPhone); over time the price may fall as new models are released. •By considering the requirements of each stage of the life cycle, marketing managers may adjust their marketing activities accordingly. •The length of the phases of a products life cycle cannot be easily predicted.•Marketing varies from product to product and needs to be altered at each stage of the product life cycle.•Some products may just be a ‘fad’ and have a very short lifecycle, whereas others had a much longer lifecycle and stay in fashion for a while.