| Product Life Cycle Management |
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The conditions a Product is sold under will change over time. The Product Life Cycle refers to the succession of stages a product goes through. '''Product Life Cycle Management''' is the succession of strategies used by management as a product goes through its life cycle. The Product Lifecycle goes through many phases and involves many professional disciplines and requires many skills, tools and processes. Product life cycle (PLC) is to do with the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures; whereas Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is more to do with managing descriptions and properties of a product through its development and useful life, mainly from a business/engineering point of view. THE STAGES Products tend to go through five stages: # New Product Development stage
# Market Introduction stage
# Growth stage
# Mature stage
# Decline or Stability stage
MARKET EVOLUTION Market Evolution is a process that parallels the product life cycle. As a product category matures, the industry goes through stages that mirror the five stages of a product life cycle: # Market Crystallization - latent demand for a product category is awakened with the introduction of the new product # Market Expansion - additional companies enter the market and more consumers become aware of the product category # Market Fragmentation - the industry is subdivided into numerous well populated competitive groupings as too many firms enter # Market Consolidation - firms start to leave the industry due to stiff competition, falling prices, and falling profits # Market Termination - consumers no longer demand the product and companies stop producing it Market Identification A "micro-market" can be used to describe a Walkman , more portable, as well as individually and privately recordable; and then Compact Discs ("CDs") brought increased capacity and CD-R offered individual private recording...and so the process goes. The below section on the "technology lifecycle" is a most appropriate concept in this context. In short, termination is not always the end of the cycle; it can be the end of a micro-entrant within the grander scope of a macro-environment. The auto industry, fast-food industry, petro-chemical industry, are just a few that demonstrate a macro-environment that overall has not terminated even while micro-entrants over time have come and gone. TECHNOLOGY LIFE CYCLE The Technology Life Cycle is closely associated with the economic potential of obtaining gain through the exploitation of a process or manufacturing system, taking into consideration such attributes of the product or process as its Patent s, Knowhow , trademarks, and/or trade-secrets, the reputation of the proprietor of the technology and other associated intangibles. See The Technology Life Cycle .it is very important in the business LESSONS OF THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE (PLC) It is claimed that every product has a Life Cycle . It is launched, it grows, at some point, may die. A fair comment is that - at least in the short term - not all products/services die. Jeans may die, but clothes probably won't. Legal services, medical services, may die, but depending on a social political climate, probably won't. Even though its validity is questionable, it can offer a useful ' Model ' for managers to keep at the back of their mind. Indeed, if their products are in the introductory or growth phases, or in that of decline, it perhaps should be at the front of their mind; for the predominant features of these phases may be those revolving around such life and death. Between these two extremes, it is salutary for them to have that vision of mortality in front of them. The most important aspect of Product Life-cycle s is, however, that - even under normal conditions - to all practical intents and purposes they often do not exist (hence, there needs to be more emphasis on model/reality mappings). In most markets the majority of the major (dominant) brands have held their position for at least two decades. The dominant product life-cycle, that of the brand leaders which almost monopolize many markets, is therefore one of continuity. In the most respected criticism of the product life cycle, Dhalla & Yuspeh {Link without Title} state; "...clearly, the PLC is a dependent variable which is determined by market actions; it is not an independent variable to which companies should adapt their marketing programs. Marketing management itself can alter the shape and duration of a brand's life cycle." Thus, the life cycle may be useful as a Description , but not as a Predictor ; and usually should be firmly under the control of the marketer! The important point is that in many, if not most, markets the product or brand life cycle is significantly longer than the planning cycle of the organisations involved. It, thus, offers little of practical value for most marketers. Even if the PLC (and the related PLM support) exists for them, their plans will be based just upon that piece of the curve where they currently reside (most probably in the 'mature' stage); and their view of that part of it will almost certainly be ' Linear ' (and limited), and will not encompass the whole range from growth to decline. SEE ALSO
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