Product life cycle

Product life cycle management (marketing)
Product life cycle management (or PLCM) is the succession of strategies used by business management as a product goes through its life cycle. The conditionin which a product is sold (advertising, saturation) changes over time and must be managed as it moves through its succession of stages.
Product life cycle (PLC) Like human beings, products also havea life-cycle. From birth to death, human beings pass through various stages e.g. birth, growth, maturity, decline and death. A similar life-cycle is seen in the case of products. The product lifecycle goes through multiple phases, involves many professional disciplines, and requires many skills, tools and processes. Product life cycle (PLC) has to do with the life of a product in the market withrespect to business/commercial costs and sales measures. To say that a product has a life cycle is to assert three things:
• Products have a limited life,
• Product sales pass through distinctstages, each posing different challenges, opportunities, and problems to the seller,
• Products require different marketing, financing, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in eachlife cycle stage.
The four main stages of a product's life cycle and the accompanying characteristics are:
Stage Characteristics
1. Market introduction stage 1. costs are very high
2. slow salesvolumes to start
3. little or no competition
4. demand has to be created
5. customers have to be prompted to try the product
6. makes no money at this stage
2. Growth stage 1. costs reduced due toeconomies of scale
2. sales volume increases significantly
3. profitability begins to rise
4. public awareness increases
5. competition begins to increase with a few new players in establishingmarket
6. increased competition leads to price decreases
3. Maturity stage 1. costs are lowered as a result of production volumes increasing and experience curve effects
2. sales volume peaks and...