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What Is Product Life Cycle – Product Life Cycle Example
Definition of ‘Product Life Cycle’
Definition: Product life cycle (PLC) is the cycle through which every product goes through from introduction to withdrawal or eventual demise.
Product life cycle introduction
Every product goes through a cycle from birth, followed by an initial growth stage, a relatively stable matured period, and finally into a declining stage that eventually ends in the death of the product as shown schematically in Figure
A company’s positioning and differentiation strategies must change as the product, market, and competitors change over the product life cycle(PLC). If we are saying product has life cycle then we have assert 4 attributes:
- Products have a limited life .
- Product sales pass through distinct stages, each posting different challenges, opportunities and problems to the seller
- Profits rise and fall at different stages of the product life cycle.
- Products require different marketing, financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in each life cycle stage.
Product Life cycle Diagram :

(1) Introduction stage:
In this stage the product is new and the customer acceptance is low and hence the sales are low.
(2) Growth stage:
Knowledge of the product and its capabilities reaches to a growing number of customers.
(3) Maturity stage:
The product is widely acceptable and sales are now stable, and it grows with the same rate as the economy as a whole grows.
(4) Decline stage:
At some point of time the product enters the decline stage. Its sales start decreasing because of a new and a better product has entered the market to fulfill the same customer requirements.
Product Lifecycle Example : NOKIA
Nokia is a Finland based multinational company which was introduced during the year 1865 by Fredrik Idestam. Not many of us know this but Nokia started by producing cables, pulp and rubber. In 1992, Nokia launched it’s Digi-handheld GSM phone, Nokia 1011. It didn’t provide or launched a variety of models due to it’s less demand and sale. Nokia sold both GSM as well as CDMA phones.

GROWTH:
After a lot of research Nokia then launched it’s first phone without an antenna, Nokia 3210 on March 18, 1999. With more than 160 million units sold this model is one of the most popular and successful phones in history. When I-phone and Samsung came in competition, Nokia then launched phones like N95 to compete with them.
MATURITY:
During this stage, Nokia launched a lot of touch screen models, one of which was N-97 qwerty+touch which was huge success and the most profit was gained.
DECLINE:
Nokia’s poor product design and having it’s main focus on Windows as it’s OS, lead to it’s decline. Nokia is going through this stage now.
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