Product Life Cycle (PLC); A consideration of Strategic Marketing Management and Business Policy (Insights in Preparation for in-class Marketing Management Debate)

In understanding the full context of Product Life Cycle, one must consider the different theories and case examples stated in strategic marketing textbooks and other latest research journals available online and offline.  As of this week’s topic we study in our Marketing Management class, Product Life Cycle is one of the important aspects that a marketer must know in order to anticipate the profitability of a given product.  

This blog will not only enlighten my learners in preparation for their debate next week but also to give my readers a view on how consumer products today will survive in the steep business market at present time.  As what we generally conceived from the modern marketing approach that every product must have “value added” to the product in order to gain the market share relating from the actual consumer market demand.

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE DISCUSSED:

Product Life Cycle is classified into 4 basic parts which is the Introduction stage, Growth stage, Maturity Stage, and Decline Stage.  These 4 stages of product life cycle is proven to be the natural path of every product as to the profit procurement of the product experience by the company through the specific period of time or the life cycle.

Introduction Stage:

In this stage, the launching of new product by using the marketing and PR program of the company must be initiated allowing a higher amount of monetary capital to mobilize the marketing program.  High technology products demands vivid translation of scientific terminologies to relate in laymen’s terms.  Scientific marketing and PR planning is needed to calculate the general consumers reaction towards the given product.  In some cases, during the introduction stage failure to launch the product will occur granting that “railroading” the market launching program is not well accepted by the public.  Therefore, introduction stage in product life cycle needs a careful strategic PR presentation that the public will grasp the positive first impression of the product relating to its product value and innovation.

Growth Stage:

During the growth stage, product’s popularity starts to dominate the market conceding that the product is in positive market acceptance.  Furthermore, growth stage still needs the marketing and PR assistance in order to accommodate the early setbacks of the product. We can take for example the tech products that during the early stage of market revelation; some technical setbacks will come out as to the adjustments of the user towards the product itself and the environment.  To give a brief example, the product setback of Boeing after its production is during its few flights when the battery burn and force the plane to execute an emergency landing.  In my previous blog I discuss the actual event of Boeing battery problem and its effect in the pending orders from big airline companies around the globe.  Growth stage basing from the Boeing case (http://ryansinnovativeideas.blogspot.com/2013/01/boeing-quality-controlis-it-faa.html), shows the importance of product market reputation towards the after effect in Maturity stage.  What is the early marketing presentation in Introduction and Growth stage will affect the time span during the maturity stage.  As a general understanding that Maturity stage is the only stage that almost all business marketers enjoys the monetary profitability.     Relating to the BCG matrix we can infer that during maturity stage sometimes this is the stage when the company is in the “cash cow” market profitability status.

Maturity Stage:

This stage signifies the prime performance of the product were in the desired market is in its maturity to accept the desired volume of production from the company.  Moreover, this stage allows the marketing and PR department to reduce its advertising force and shifting its task in analyzing and innovating the product’s specifications and performance to allow the product in staying longer in the maturity stage.  The longer the product will stay in the maturity stage the more the company can gain monetary profit.  If the competing product can recognize the market dominance of the given sample product, the tendency of the competing product is to accept that they are the alternative product for the moment and later if the competing product can gain marketing momentum then maybe they will exhaust their marketing force again.  On the contrary, the company who dominates the maturity stage must see to it that the product can stay longer.  In some cases, companies will not follow the conventional graph of Product Life Cycle but rather performs a distinct map of the graph that will show that the conventional graph of Product Life Cycle cannot be applied to all the consumer products.  This part of the PLC lesson, a scholar or a business debater can argue that PLC is having an ambiguity in the general application of the theory.

Decline Stage:

This stage implies towards the market unpopularity of the product where in the Marketing and PR experts of the company will start to think of upgrading or eliminating the product for a planned second set marketing and PR program.  If the company is not ready to execute the next marketing plan then the company will suffer the time laps of the company’s market existence.  The PR popularity of the company brand in the market must not be surpassed by other brand names or else consumer product shift will take into effect and it is very hard for your company brand name to revive the market dominance.  

VIDEO PRESENTATION OF PLC