Managing Products Along Life Cycle

Dr.Sanjay Patro

AgendaDifferent stages of PLC

Competition in different Stages and Challenges

Pros and Cons of being a Pioneer

Pros and cons of being a FollowerKnowing where are you in the PLC

Limitations of PLC Concept

Product Life Cycle

Different stages of PLC

Challenges Before the Pioneers

Diffusion of Innovative Products

Adopter Categories

Challenges before the Pioneers

What are the Challenges before the Pioneers?

“This season there is some thing at the seaside worse than sharks, declared a news paper in 1890

 in 1893 and the etiquette of being photographed by a woman had not yet been established. Female photographers were nicknamed 'Kodak fiends.'

Adopter Categories

Innovators

Early Adopters

Early Majority

Late Majority

Laggards

What are the advantages of being a Pioneer?

First Mover Advantages

1. Experience Effects

2. Patents as barriers

3. Access to best of the resources

4. Switching Costs as Barriers

5. Market share penalty for later entrants

Ideas, messages and products spread like virus after a point

– Malcom Gladwell

The Tipping Point-It is the moment of critical mass or the threshold.

Value of the first fax machine

Free Rider Effects

1. Lower Costs of Incubating the Market

2. Technological Leapfrogging

3. Learning from other’s Mistakes

Options before pioneers

1. Obtain Patents

2. Match/Surpass Product features of followers

3. Do what the imitators are planning to do

AgendaDifferent stages of PLC

Competition in different Stages and Challenges

Pros and Cons of being a Pioneer

Pros and cons of being a Follower

Knowing where are you in the PLC

Product/Service Bundle for products that requires maintenance and repair support

In which industries sale of spare parts and after sale support far exceeds the sale of product itself ?

Managers need to focus on the profitability in its entire PLC than at the time of transaction

Strategies to tap into stream of after sale profits

How do you decide what stage of lifecycle your product is in?

Different Levels of Product

Product Category Level

Product Form Level

Product Brand Level

What is happening to PLC over a period of time?

Case of Scissors

Criticism of the Concept

1. Not an independent variable

2. What is the product-market for analysis

3. Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Product Managers shouldn’t blindly plan their marketing strategy around the classic PLC.it is not unusual for products to gain “second lives” or even “reincarnation.” Number of PLC Patterns have been found

Exploit The Product Life Cycle—Theodre Levitt, HBR 1965

Forget the Product Life Cycle

Thank You