Subject areaProcess and organisation
Also known asPLC
The product life cycle (PLC) is the model that describes a product's path on the market in four stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
In the introduction sales are low and launch costs high; in growth demand accelerates and competitors arrive; in maturity sales level off and competition plays out on price and differentiation; in decline demand falls because the market moves elsewhere.
The model matters because each stage calls for different pricing, communication and distribution choices. A campaign that works in growth wastes budget in maturity, where defending margin and market share counts more. The cycle reads a trend, so the length of the stages varies widely between industries, and a well-renewed product can return to growth instead of declining.
An example
The case below is constructed, because the term does not yet appear in the articles. A manufacturer of chemical additives for construction sees sales of a long-standing product slow down while competitors offer similar versions at a lower price: the product has entered maturity. The company stops advertising that product, protects its margin with loyal customers and moves the budget to the launch of the new formulation.
Related entries
broader entriesthis entry and narrowertwo levels down← up · → down
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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