Product Life Cycle Concept Research Articles

Linking Marketing Strategy to New-Product Development

Abstract The teaching of the new-product-development process in marketing curricula has been placed traditionally after the presentation and discussion of both marketing strategy and the product life cycle concepts. In this article, the authors demonstrate that today's marketing pedagogy requires an innovative linkage approach to the teaching of (a) the vertical linkage within the product life cycle and (b) the horizontal linkage among the concepts of marketing strategy, product-development life cycle, and product life cycle. This linkage approach provides the marketing student with required skills in the formulation, development, and implementation of the marketing strategy.

PRODUCT MODIFICATION MANAGEMENT

It is generally accepted that a product life cycle is typically a continuum from introduction to termination of a product. The term product could include either a product or service. The earliest applications of the product life cycle concept were in fashion merchandising but it has gained acceptance in almost all areas of product management.

Descriptive Analysis of the 15-Year Product Life Cycles of a Sample of Pharmaceutical Products

There has been disagreement among academicians regarding the practicality and utility of the product life cycle (PLC) concept as a planning tool, and comparatively few studies have been conducted of the PLC concept in the pharmaceutical industry. The goal of this study was to provide a description of the 15-year trends of new prescription volumes of a sample of the new chemical entity (NCE) drug products introduced from 1963 to 1972, using the PLC concept. To accomplish this goal, the main objective of this study was to assess the curves visually and to determine whether the six PLC curves observed by Cox are representative and exhaustive in the post-Kefauver 1962 Amendment era.

Advertising's Effect on the Product Evolutionary Cycle

Criticism of the product life cycle (PLC) concept centers on problems with theory, empirical validation, and practical use. The product evolutionary cycle (PEC), an alternative concept based on the field of biology, has been suggested to provide a more complete picture of the effects of marketing mix and competition on product sales. The authors assess the PEC framework empirically in the U.S. cigarette industry. Advertising-sales causation is tested on three levels of segment competition: (1) individual brand, (2) intracategory, and (3) intercategory. The findings indicate that more distantly related “organisms” compete as well as those closely related in terms of background. Specifically, the authors demonstrate a gradual but marked decrease in the effect of advertising on sales as products with more distant lineage coexist and compete. The PEC is demonstrated to be an information-laden framework to use in making marketing mix decisions.

The end of the product life cycle? Education says goodbye to an old friend

This paper re‐evaluates the ‘old favourite’ of marketing education, the Product Life Cycle concept. A number of problems are identified including the contrast of the theory with empirical research and wide range of PLC (Product Life Cycle) patterns which have been identified by researchers. This paper concludes that the PLC concept has, perhaps, outlived its own life cycle having, in its day, provided a useful service particularly to marketing educators.

Strategic Planning With a Systems Dynamics Model For Regional Tourism Site Development

This research follows the dynamics of the leisure “service” production cycle of a tourism site through the nonlinear technique of system dynamics. System dynamic models use feedback relationships to interrelate observed data and descriptive information to understand the internal linkages among the competing forces of a system. The resulting simulation provides a long run forecast that can be used by policy makers in achieving a balanced strategic management plan. As with all system dynamics models, the purpose is to develop a quantitative simulation that depicts the structural relationships of the process under study. Public and private decision makers are concerned with the long run results of regional tourism site development This research criticizes the current use of the product life cycle concept as applied in the market for services for its inability to consider the structural dynamics of the market. The structural dynamics are considered in the formal model developed here. The goal of this research is to provide insight into the use of system dynamics models as a tool for aiding in strategic decisions concerning regional tourism site development.

Financial Management in the Context of the Organizational Life Cycle

Various researchers agree to the existence of corporate organizational life cycles similar in principle to the product life cycle concept used in marketing. Life cycle models applied to business organizations suggest that functional departments grow and undergo unique changes in various developmental stages of the firm. The purpose of this study was to determine the changes, issues, and responsibilities common to people involved in financial decision-making in foodservice firms at different stages of the organizational life-cycle.

Succession as an alternative to the concept of product life cycle

AbstractProduct life cycle (PLC) is shown to be a special case of a more general concept, ecological succession, itself a special case of general succession. The attributes of ecological succession are described in both biological and social—economic spheres. PLC behavior is analyzed using attributes of ecological succession and it is demonstrated to be a special case of succession.

Forecasting the price evolution of new electronic products

AbstractThis study tests the hypothesis that prices in new markets change in a pattern similar to and related to the product life cycle. Three stages of price decline have been identified in electronic product markets and can be associated with the introduction, take‐off and growth, and maturity stages of the product life cycle. The study integrates the methodologies of the product life cycle concept and experience curve theory and analyses price and product behaviour for radios, monochrome (black and white) televisions, colour televisions and video cassette recorders. The empirical evidence supports the hypothesis and suggests, as a general rule, that a better understanding of a product's life cycle and the factors that affect it can aid in the development of price forecasts. In fact, the marriage of experience curve theory and the product life cycle concept provides a methodology for quantifying the impact of influential factors and gives the analyst the ability to bound the uncertainty around price forecasts, ultimately leading to better strategic decisions, today, for tomorrow's markets.

Measuring The Use of the Product Life Cycle Concept by Marketing Managers: Problems and Prospects

This paper examines the difficulties associated with attempting to ascertain whether marketing managers use the Product Life Cycle concept to help formulate marketing strategy. The strengths and weaknesses of a number of possible research methodologies are reviewed.

An Empirical Investigation of Success Strategies for Businesses Along the Product Life Cycle

Since the introduction of the concept of the product life cycle (PLC) some decades ago a great deal has been written on the subject and several empirical studies have been conducted. However, empirical research to date is often limited in scope. It is oriented towards the analysis of the growth and saturation stages and focused primarily on the study of consumer goods. Furthermore, the application of the PLC concept in strategic planning is largely disappointing, the normative orientation of most of this literature being somewhat naive and misleading. The aim of the present research is to study the efficiency of different strategies for achieving market share and cash flow objectives. This study is performed on different types of businesses producing both consumer and industrial products situated at various stages on the product life cycle: growth, maturity and decline. A sample of approximately 1,100 businesses (217 in the growth stage, 315 in the maturity stage, 569 in the decline stage) is drawn from the PIMS data base. A cluster analysis is run to identify natural groups of homogeneous businesses. For each of the nine identified groups, linear regression models are estimated to study the influence of strategic actions—finance, marketings, production, R&D, personnel—on two criteria of performance: market share and cash flow. The research indicates that strategies not only depend on the life cycle stage but also are influenced by the goal orientation of the firm—short-term (cash-flow) or long-term (market share)—and that success strategies appear to be contingent upon the business and the environmental characteristics.

Late entry, market shares and competitive survival: The case of synthetic fibers

AbstractThis paper examines product policy in relation to the experience curve and product life cycle concepts in the context of the experience of the thirteen major firms in the Western European synthetic fibers industry. It examines the hypothesis based on Boston Consulting Group and the Profit Impact of Market Share (PIMS) evidence that late entrants to a market will be at a competitive disadvantage because they lack the accumulated experience of the pioneering firms. For each of the three main synthetic fibres, acrylic, nylon and polyester, it was found that the early entrants who established major market shares early in the growth phase of the product life cycle were able to maintain that leadership nearly twenty years later. In contrast not only did almost all the late entrants fail to achieve significant market shares but in the difficult market conditions between 1974 and 1981 they provided seven out of nine market withdrawals.

PLC: The Missing Link between Physical Distribution and Marketing Planning

Physical distribution (PD) management has often been viewed only as the administration of storage and transportation activities. However, increasing demands on customer service, added product complexity, increased transportation costs and intensifying competition have significantly broadened the scope of PD management. A modern PD manager must do more planning, command greater decision‐making authority and become more active in formulating and implementing marketing strategies (e.g. price setting, packaging design, etc). In order to assume these new responsibilities, PD managers will require a reconceptualisation of their jobs and function as an integral part of the firm. Most important is the need for a set of carefully conceived PD strategies and tactics that are sequenced according to some workable framework. The authors maintain that the product life cycle (PLC) concept represents such a guideline. They discuss how the PLC concept can be used to gauge changing market conditions as well as the subsequent impact this has on the formulation and implementation of timely PD strategies and tactics.

BUSINESS TOOK THE WRONG LIFE CYCLE FROM BIOLOGY

Business has struggled for many years in an effort to utilize the product life cycle concept in marketing and business planning. Controversy has swirled around the concept, particularly in recent years, and business has pretty much decided that the concept is as dangerous in many situations as it is helpful in others. Several authors have encouraged its abandonment.

An Evolutionary Approach to Product Growth Theory

The continuing controversy about the product life cycle (PLC) concept may indicate that the concept, while useful, is inadequate to explain the entire phenomenon of product growth and proliferation. An alternative concept, the product evolutionary cycle (PEC), is hereby proposed to help resolve this controversy and to provide a better framework for explaining and managing product growth.

The Product Life Cycle: Analysis and Applications Issues

Each of the articles in this special section makes a distinctive contribution to the long-standing controversy over the managerial value of the product life cycle concept. This overview is designed to put these articles into a broader perspective by analyzing the major issues of identification, forecasting, and strategy formulation encountered in any meaningful application of the product life cycle.

An Evolutionary Approach to Product Growth Theory

The continuing controversy about the product life cycle (PLC) concept may indicate that the concept, while useful, is inadequate to explain the entire phenomenon of product growth and proliferation. An alternative concept, the product evolutionary cycle (PEC), is hereby proposed to help resolve this controversy and to provide a better framework for explaining and managing product growth.

The Product Life Cycle: Analysis and Applications Issues

Each of the articles in this special section makes a distinctive contribution to the long-standing controversy over the managerial value of the product life cycle concept. This overview is designed to put these articles into a broader perspective by analyzing the major issues of identification, forecasting, and strategy formulation encountered in any meaningful application of the product life cycle.

The Product Cycle and New England Textiles

Technological change and product life cycle concepts can be used to explain the concentration of cotton textile production in Southeastern England during the industry's period of rapid innovation in machinery and machine tool design. Boston was the center for an agglomeration of high technology industries that were attracted by each other and the local resource pool of skilled mechanics and entrepreneurs. The movement of the textile industry to the Southeast, which took place after 1880, is linked to technological change in the product cycle that substituted unskilled labor for skilled labor and high technology inputs. The phrase Yankee ingenuity has become a part of the English language. If England no longer holds all the good mechanics in the United States, there was a time when she came so near it that the term New England mechanic had a very definite meaning over the whole country [Roe, 1916, p. 109].

Use of the Product Life Cycle Concept in Development of Purchasing Strategies

Journal of Purchasing and Materials ManagementVolume 16, Issue 2 p. 12-17 Article Use of the Product Life Cycle Concept in Development of Purchasing Strategies G.E. Kiser, G.E. KiserSearch for more papers by this authorDavid Rink, David RinkSearch for more papers by this author G.E. Kiser, G.E. KiserSearch for more papers by this authorDavid Rink, David RinkSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 June 1980 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-493X.1980.tb00015.xCitations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume16, Issue2Summer 1980Pages 12-17 RelatedInformation