Product Life Cycle (PLC) Made Easy

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• Should I increase the price of my product?
• Should I expand my markets?
• Should I use advertising or sales promotions?

These questions depend on many factors, one key component is the stage of the PLC your product is in. Products in general go through a sequence of stages, from “introduction” to “growth” to “maturity” and “decline”. Known as the product life cycle (PLC), these phases happen due to dynamics between the life of the product and the market it is in. This has implications for your marketing tactics.

Here is how the PLC looks like. In the following article, I will explain the PLC as simplified as I can.

Introduction Stage

• Strategy: Build product awareness and develop market.
• Product: Branding, benchmarks, IP protection.
• Price: Low to build market share fast, or high to recover startup costs.
• Place: Selective until consumers show acceptance and learn of the new product.
• Promotion: Targeted at innovators and early adopters, with copywriting designed to explain to them on the product. Public relations is a key tactic at this stage.

Growth Stage

• Strategy: Build brand preference and increase market share.
• Product: Product enhancements and support services may be added.
• Price: Maintained as the business is experiencing good growth with little competition.
• Place: Distribution channels increased as demand increases and acceptance grows geographically.
• Promotion: Targeted at a broader audience.

Maturity Stage

• Strategy: Defend market share while maximizing profit. Product differentiation is key.
• Product: Enhanced to differentiate the product from competitors.
• Price: May engage in price war due to incoming competition.
• Place: More intensive distribution. Perks can be offered to encourage your business and product over your competitors.
• Promotion: Answers the question “Why Me and Not Him.”

Decline Stage

• Strategy: Never give up or time to look at other seas?
• Maintain: Refresh the product by redefining it, adding new features and finding new uses.
• Harvest: Reduce costs and continue to offer to a loyal niche segment.
• Discontinue: Liquidate or sell business.

To clarify, the reason why a specific tactic is recommended for a specific stage is because these tactics offer the best probability of success for the given strategy, as determined by marketing scholars who formed this PLC framework. So instead of thinking of marketing tactics without any structured frameworks, knowledge of the PLC offers you a focused a strategy in running your business. So time to look at your sales sheets over the course of time, and find out which stage of the PLC are you in.

Is your business using the right strategy?

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