1. Introduction
It has been well established that Product Life Cycle (PLC) concept has a significant impact upon business strategy and corporate performance. Since the term was first used by Levitt (1965 ) in an Harvard Business Review article “Exploit the Product Life Cycle” the concept has been widely accepted and applied by marketing practitioners all over the world.
The product life cycle concept is one of the most quoted and most frequently taught elements of marketing theory. According to Mercer (1993: 269) the influence of the product life cycle can be seen in other theories, from new product development, positioning & differentiation and portfolio analysis.
Since its adoption by marketing, the product life cycle (PLC) has achieved universal acceptance because of its appeal and wide application.
According to Weber (1976: 12) the product life cycle concept provides an intuitively appealing and readily understandable framework of analysis for considering future growth opportunities and pitfalls. As time passes sales increase slowly at first (introduction phase), then more quickly (growth phase), then once again more slowly (maturity and saturation phases), and finally decrease (decline phase).
This assignment discusses the importance of repositioning and differentiating for an organization’s products or services using the concept of Product Life Cycle (PLC). It also critically analyses the actual practice an organization undertakes to repositioning or differentiating it products. Based on the critical analysis a set of recommendations are provided for the selected organization to improve its overall positioning & differentiating efforts during the various stages of PLC.
Within this con ...