- Stages in which a product (or category of

product) go through in terms of its sales and

profit throughout its life.

- There is no specific time frame for each of the

stage in the PLC.

4 Main Stages:

i. Introduction

ii. Growth

iii. Maturity

iv. Decline

- A period of sales growth as the product is

introduced in the market.

- Profits are non-existent because of the heavy

expenses of product introduction (plus low sales).

- No/very few competitors.

- Introduce basic version.

- Employ selective distribution.

- Try to attractive dealers to carry the product.

- Focus on innovators.

- Marketing objective:

to create awareness and trial.

- A period of rapid market acceptance and

substantial profit improvement.

- Start to attract many competitors.

- Need to improve/modify the current product (such

as introducing new features)

- Marketing objective:

to maximize market share

- Strategies:

a. lower down the price

b. develop intensive distribution

- A slowdown in sales growth because the product

has achieved acceptance by most potential buyers.

- Profits stabilize or decline because of increased

competition.

- Competitors start cutting price to attract new

buyers.

- Marketing objective:

to maximize profit.

- Strategies:

Emphasize on brand differences and value/benefit.- Towards the end of this stage, many competitors start

leaving out the market.

- Sales show a downward drift and profit erode.

- Major reasons for declining:

a. innovation and technology advancement

b. changes in consumer’s taste

c. stiff comptition

- More and more competitors leaving the market.

- Focus on the “laggards”

- Need to determine the best strategy to

a. maintain

b. harvest

c. drop

- Maintain – if the best and with assumption that

competitors will all gone. Need brand repositioning.

- Harvest – to cut down various costs.

- Drop – if there is no hope at all. Sell off the business.

PLC could be extended by:

a. increasing the frequency of

consumption

b. increasing the number of

consumers

c. developing new usage

d. changing the package size, label

and product quality