The life cycle of every product is made up of several sets of process life cycles. The average product lifecycle is made up of five stages including development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Each of these stages is made up of a comprehensive process life cycle that begins at the advent of the process and ends at the end of that stage of the product lifecycle (Reichert, Hallerbach, & Bauer, 2015). The nature and efficacy of the process lifecycle determine the nature of that stage within the product lifecycle. If the process is ineffective or mediocre, the stage of the product life cycle will also be mediocre, a fact that will interfere with the entire life cycle of the product. The product and process life cycles respectively are critical bearing factors to the success of a product, as this research paper will reveal.
Product Development
Product development is the first stage in the product life cycle and it has its own process cycle. It is during this stage that a company comes up with an idea, evaluates the viability of the idea then develops it into a product. The process life cycle within this stage begins with a need in the target market (Schöggl, Baumgartner, & Hofer, 2017). The need in the market inspires an idea within the company or causes the company to procure an idea externally. The company will then conduct marketing research based both on the viability of the idea as a product to the market and also if the product can effectively be developed into a viable product that can be sold. If the research has positive outcomes, a product is developed (Schöggl, Baumgartner, & Hofer, 2017).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Introduction Stage
The introduction stage of a product begins when the product is still being developed and ends when the product has gained traction in the market. The process life cycle in this stage begins with marketing research prior to rolling out the process. It is then followed by the marketing process of advertising the product and the sales process of creating avenues for availing the product to the target market (Rankin & Mintu-Wimsatt, 2017). The introduction stage is critical to the success of a product.
Growth Stage
Growth is the third stage of a product lifecycle and runs from the moment the product gains traction in the market until the product has reached the zenith of possible sale and exposure. The process cycle within the growth stage entails the expansion of the target market including geographically to increase sales. It is also within the growth stage that the marketer improves its supply chain management to provide better value to customers and increase profitability (Simester, 2017). The process life cycle in this stage ends when sales begin to plateau at their highest level.
The Maturity Stage
The maturity stage is perhaps the most important stage of product development as denotes the prime sales stage of the product. At this stage, the product, as well as its supply chain, has matured and the marketer is reaping profits after the herculean task of developing and rolling out the product (Iyer & Church, 2018). The process cycle within this stage entails an effort to perpetuate the maturity stage and cause it to last as long as possible.
The Decline Stage
The decline stage is the last stage in product development and one that every market tries to forestall although it is inevitable. The process lifecycle within the decline stage is limited but critical and includes evaluation to establish the rate of decline to caution the marketer from investing in a product whose time has already passed (Hu et al., 2017).
Conclusion
Every product’s life can be reduced into a five-stage product lifecycle that runs from the start to the end of the product. Each stage is fundamental to the success of the product. Process life cycles run the cause of each stage of the life cycle. Each product has only one life cycle but a total of five process cycles, each falling within the five stages of the life cycle.
References
Hu, K., Acimovic, J., Erize, F., Thomas, D. J., & Van Mieghem, J. A. (2017). Forecasting product life cycle curves: Practical approach and empirical analysis. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2867528
Iyer, V., & Church, N. (2018). The linking process: Product life cycle, diffusion process, competitive market structures and nature of the market. Red Internacional de Investigadores en Competitividad , 8 (1), 207-212
Rankin, R., & Mintu-Wimsatt, A. (2017). Challenges in introducing new products: A case study on the new product development process. e-Journal of Business Education and Scholarship of Teaching , 11 (2), 95-101
Reichert, M., Hallerbach, A., & Bauer, T. (2015). Lifecycle management of business process variants. In Handbook on Business Process Management 1 (pp. 251-278). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Schöggl, J. P., Baumgartner, R. J., & Hofer, D. (2017). Improving sustainability performance in early phases of product design: A checklist for sustainable product development tested in the automotive industry. Journal of Cleaner Production , 140 , 1602-1617
Simester, D. (2017). Field experiments in marketing. In Handbook of Economic Field Experiments (Vol. 1, pp. 465-497). North-Holland
