Product life-cycle, Mantra to sustain in Business

Hi Readers, 

Do you know why world leaders spend more time energy and money at innovation? The reason behind is the main key to their success lies in innovation. A small player always keeps a close watch at market leaders to copy their innovation to supply at a cheaper price without R&D Cost.

Product lifecycle: In this blog, we will discuss the product lifecycle. Each new product has to go through 5 stages.

1. Research and product development: This is the first stage where market leaders and proactive new and old organizations keep on working at new products to launch at the time when their previous products are at decline stage to maintain business growth. In textile Industry if we recollect traditionally there were four main fibers used in textile, for example, Cotton, Linen, Silk and wool as an organic product, rest was Polyester and acrylic. The Innovation of Birla Cellulose of Viscose fiber LIVA as bringing a revolution in the fashion industry. A cheap fabric made by “wood” a natural organic raw material with the sheen, lustre, breathability, drape ability with the brightness of color has given a new dimension to the fashion industry. As soon as other players have started supplying Viscose staple fiber or fabric, Birla launched new product Modal fabric with better pilling resistance and reduce seam slippage with better strength in a lighter weight. This innovation of Birla Cellulose helps them to fetch a very good business from China through supplying fiber. 

2. Introduction and launch: this is the 2nd stage of product lifecycle where organization decides the budget of a new product launch by ATL and BTL marketing strategy to create product awareness. In most of the cases, the Organization launches a new product when their previous product starts declining to meet business targets. Some organizations launch new products during the period where the business is stagnant and has no scope to increase further. For example, Birla Cellulose introduced Tencel to help marketing team to retain his existing customers & add more at the time when most of the mills start providing Modal fabrics.

3. Growth: After the introduction of the new launch, some products sale grows drastically and a decline in the same way. Such example we can see these days in the Mobile industry, but some product last long. Nokia is one of the example of a product which has long life. Somehow Nokia fails to match the international market Innovation speed & decline badly. Same way in Textile industry Cotton fabrics like cambric, voile, Poplin & Canvas may never die, but the sale is reducing day by day as customers are getting new options every season which is causing a decline in Cotton textile. Although the current fashion trend is focusing back at sustainable and recycled fabrics where cotton and linen blend “new fabrics innovations of Vardhman mill” are attracting premium as well as mass brands because future fashion trend is focused on sustainability. Growth is the stage where the sale graph keeps on moving upward or we can say business is increasing day by day. During this period overheads go done and brands start giving some extra benefits to attract & add new customers.

4.   Maturity: This is the peak of growth. By even putting more efforts at marketing and even giving extra benefits, organizations are unable to increase sale. This is the right time when the Organization must launch new products before the sale starts declining.

5. Decline: This is the stage when the sale graph goes down. Customers are getting better products in the market offered by other players. Before this stage, Organization’s research and development teams should be ready with new better products which should be ahead with the current market. This new product not only matches in the advancement but also should be durable, comfortable or Healthy as well as nature-friendly.

The success of today’s business lies in trust between consumer and manufacturer/Seller. If the customer trusts an organization & has faith that post buying product, an organization will stand by to understand and resolve customer’s issue & complaints then they become loyal customers. This global warming has made customers aware of the importance of Natural, Organic, sustainable, and biodegradable benefits to the save nature & nation. Nowadays, this new educated generation is quite a concern about what we are going to leave for the next generation. Electronics which has a short lifecycle, for example, smartphone are creating such kind of waste which is a slow poison of our earth. So sustainability is one of the key mantras of today’s successful businesses.