The Product Life Cycle

Introduction

The concept of Product Life Cycle (PLC) refers to a specific product’s industrial sales pattern, which varies through different stages that the product goes by. The authors of Essentials of Marketing: A marketing strategy planning approach divide these stages into four main categories listed as a) market introduction, b) market growth, c) market maturity and d) sales decline (Perreault, Cannon, McCarty, 2012, p. 221). Strategies pursued on each of these four stages, which concern the Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM) have substantial effects on a company’s competitive advantage. As of today, it is possible to say the PLCs of many products are much shorter than those of similar products used in the past. The article “The Product

Francine Kiefer, in her article “Shorter Product Life Cycles Set Faster Pace for Many Firms” (Csmonitor.com, August 2, 1983) explains that the product development periods are now shorter because of the new technologies used in production stages. The companies with technological bents, in other words those that are producing technological products are more likely to feel that pressure. They are also affecting the other industries since their products are used as complements in many other firms’ products. MP3 players and electronic microchips are two examples for explaining the impacts of technology on product life cycle. In the Essentials of Marketing: a marketing strategy planning approach it is given that “Tiny electronic microchips led to thousands of new productsfrom Texas Instruments calculators in the early days to microchip-controlled heart valves now. For many decades AM or FM radio and record albums were primary sources of music at home or on the road. Just over a decade MP3 players emerged…in less than a decade MP3 players are nearing market maturity, while the newer radio formats are early in the market growth stage.” (Perreault, Cannon, McCarty, 2012, p.

Besides taking care of their customers, companies now must beware of their competitors’ threatening actions to survive and not to lose their market shares. This requirement leads these companies to introduce new products to the market constantly. All the decisions made by managers are in direction of that issue. When we consider the statement in the article “The Product Life Cycle is in Decline”, “… if a business is not quick enough to introduce a product to market, it risks launching goods that have already been superseded by competitors.” (Horn, 2012, para.3), we see that an unsuccessful Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM) may lead serious undesired consequences for a business.

Conclusion

An improper PLCM is most likely to affect a company’s entire managerial success in an undesired manner. Since that reason PLCM has been becoming more and more significant for today’s managers who need to be much agiler than ever before in terms of responding rapidly changing marketing environments. Those companies that are willing to reach either global or local marketing success will continue to engage in the PLCM in order to ensure their achievements will be maintained in the long