Product Life Cycle in marketing: An Undeniable Marketing Element? 

The modern consumer is as precise as a hawk - most want and demand to know the product’s life cycle. Values play a significant role in buying behavior. When a company’s production process is transparent, it has a more valuable competitive advantage than gold. Many companies take advantage of effective product life cycle marketing measures; should you too?

What is the product life cycle?

Even if a product doesn’t live, it has a life cycle. A life cycle starts with the sourcing of raw materials and ends somewhere or continues through recycling. The life cycle is the journey that a product takes from start to finish - a journey that you want to be as environmentally friendly, socially acceptable, and cost-effective as possible.

Product life cycle and environmental impact

Many factors influence the environmental performance of a product. For example, a plastic bundle produced nearby may be more environmentally friendly than a bamboo bowl shipped from far away in the USA. 

When considering the life cycle and environmental friendliness of a product, you also need to consider how you made it, where you made it, how you brought it here, and the best way to dispose of it. An environmentally friendly product will have as little impact on the environment as possible during its life cycle.

In addition to environmental friendliness, the focus is on the economic and social impacts of the product’s life cycle. All three impacts are closely interlinked.

Product life cycle and social impacts

When considering the social impacts of a product’s life cycle, one of the issues considered is how the product’s life cycle respects human rights. 

The importance of transparency and human rights has been a key topic of discussion when choosing a company to buy products from. The life cycle of a product can have both positive and negative impacts on different stakeholders in the supply chain.

Product life cycle and economic impacts

When considering the life cycle of a product from an economic perspective, the focus is on cost-effectiveness. However, cost-effectiveness does not exclude the possibility of a product being made from recycled materials, for example.

Four stages of the product life cycle in the market

The product life cycle, therefore, refers to all stages of the life cycle of a product. These stages should be taken into account in everything a company does, from product design to marketing. 

An analysis of the life cycle will give you valuable insight into what you have achieved and what needs improvement. Knowing this will help to balance the product strategy and target resources where they are most needed. 

A company has a strong competitive advantage if its product life cycle thinking is under control.

In terms of marketing, the product life cycle is divided into four distinct phases:

1. The introduction phase

The first stage is the introduction phase. The market may still be small, in which case the introduction phase often takes up the most significant chunk of the company’s cash flow. 

Getting started - developing, testing, and marketing the product - is a costly process, but is of course, essential for the business as a whole and future growth.

2. Growth phase

The growth phase is the expected phase: sales increase and with the profits. The growth phase allows investment in marketing strategy and maximum exposure of the product.

3. Maturity phase

The product has established itself on the market. The company tries to maintain the position it has achieved, and, yes, competition is often at its fiercest during the maturity phase. It may be necessary to improve the product or production process even further, giving the company a competitive advantage.

4. The decline phase

The market for the product may start to shrink, for example, due to market saturation. In this case, lowering the price of the product or finding cheaper ways of producing it may help.

Once these stages have been identified, the company can carry out effective marketing throughout the product’s life cycle.

Why is effective marketing critical to a product’s life cycle?

When product lifecycle marketing is transparent and sustainable, its use has a significant impact on potential customers. No one wants to support a company that doesn’t trample on human rights or destroys beautiful nature. 

And as a consumer, you may not be able to choose a company that matches your values if they don’t understand how to use the life cycle of a product in their marketing.

It is sensible for companies to make their life cycles transparent and marketing sustainable if they are not already. Today’s consumer is paying more and more attention to the company’s value proposition and the life cycle of the product.

In answer to the article’s title, yes, you should also leverage the life cycle of your product in marketing.

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