Fad: a fashion the enters quickly, adopted with great zeal, peaks
early, and decline very fast
PLC & Marketing Strategies
Characteristics: Introduction Growth Maturity Decline
Sales Low Rapidly rising sales Peak Declining sales
Costs High cost Average cost Low cost Low cost
per customer per customer per customer per customer
Profits Negative Rising profits High profits Declining profits
Customers Innovators Early adopters Middle majority
Competitors Few Growing number Stable number
Marketing objectives:
Create product Maximize market Maximize profit &
awareness and trial share defend market share
Strategies:
Product Offer basic product Offer product Diversify brand and
extensions, service models
Price Use cost-plus Price to penetrate Price to match or
market best competitors
Distribution Build selective Build intensive Build more
distribution distribution intensive distribution
Advertising Build awareness Build awareness & Stress brand differences
early adopters/dealers interest mass market and benefits
Sales promotion Heavy sales promotion Reduce promotion due Increase to encourage
to entice trial to heavy demand brand switching
Source: Philip Kotler and Peggy Cunningham, Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation,
and Control, Canadian 11th Edition, Pearson Education Canada, Toronto, Ontario, 2004, p. 347
Marketing Strategy During the Product Life Cycle
Product Life Cycle
• The PLC concept is used by the marketers to forecast product
performance or to develop marketing strategies.
• But all products do not follow the PLC in the same way. Some
products are introduced and die quickly; others stay in the
maturity stage for a long time. Some enter the decline stage and
are then cycled back into the growth stage through strong
promotion or repositioning.