Product Life Cycle – shows the stages that products go through from development to withdrawal
from the market
Introduction of Product Life Cycle: All products possess ‘life cycles.’ A product's life cycle, abbreviated PLC, the life cycle refers to the period from the product’s first launch into the market until its final withdrawal and it is split up in phases. Since an increase in profits is the
major goal of a company that introduces a product into a market, the product’s life cycle management is very important. The understanding of a product’s life cycle, can help a company to understand and realize when it is time to introduce and withdraw a product from a market, its position in the market compared to competitors, and the product’s success or failure.
The product’s life cycle - period usually consists of five major steps : Product Development, Introduction Stage, Growth Stage, Maturity Stage and finally Decline Stage. These phases exist and are applicable to all products or services from a certain make of automobile to a multimillion-dollar lithography tool to a one-cent capacitor. These phases can be split up into
smaller ones depending on the product and must be considered when a new product is to be introduced into a market sincethey dictate the product’s sales performance.