How to optimize a product lifecycle

We could define it as the process a certain article of our catalogue goes through since its launch until the end of its commercial usefulness for business. 

To better understand how it works, we must understand that it is never linear, and it passes through four different phases. 

This is the moment when we decide to launch a new product. As you well know it is rather delicate because it is always a bet and we do not have any certainty even though many previous studies made (that always help, I must say). 

It is one of the most "unpleasant" stage because the sales level will always be quite low and more if compared with the level of investment required to publicize from scratch the benefits and differential advantages our product has to the target audience. 

As you have to get that knowledge and acceptance of the market, you are at the time of evangelization. You will have to do lot of pressure in the distribution channel so that your products have better opportunities. Also, promotions have to be created so that the user discovers / tests what we have just launched. 

Now that the market already knows and accepted us, we can recognize that we are taking off. 

During this stage sales start to gain consistency, so at the same time, we reduce the budgetary pressure that is generated during the introduction on the market (in which there is a balance between what we invest in production and acquisition versus conversion)

 This does not mean that when growth phase starts in a product lifecycle we let ourselves be carried away by inertia.

We still need to work on promotion very much because, it is obvious that the more able we are to grow when the market is more receptive to novelty and competitors have not yet reacted, the better things will go in the following stages. Simply change the focus, since we move from aiming Brand Awareness to strengthen that status that we are starting to get. Also do it within a bigger audience. 

During growth, at prices and quality levels, we must maintain a similar level. It is not yet time to alter these attributes because we run the risk of progression.

On the other hand, is time to make our customer service shine, add new distributors (it will be easier to get more points of sale thanks to market´s acceptance), try to reduce the cost of production, introduce new features, whether or not these are radical changes at the base of the product and, why not, take advantage of the positive inertia to try to enter new markets.

It is always a moment when we touch the ceiling, the product will gradually slow its growth to enter a phase in which it is fully consolidated. This is the period we consider maturity and it occurs when sales reach a steady level.

Obviously, a large part of your target audience has already purchased your product, therefore the acquisition percentage you can achieve is being reduced. This phase supposes a lower cost in promotion and you may have also been able to adjust production costs. So, maintaining market share should be a priority and it is there where the strategy must focus on.

As you are facing a moment in which other competitors may be in growth phase, you have to find the maximum differentiation which are those strengths: genuine competitive advantages? Are you able to bring down prices, by playing with the margins to continue being appealing? Could a new use for your "old" product be found? Can we engage audience with new attributes as, for example, sustainability?

Do not be afraid to recognize that a product enters the final stage of its lifecycle. In fact, if we are able to do so, it can make us save a lot of money and resources.

This does not mean at all, that we should despise those products entering that phase of abandonment marked by the market saturation. We can also optimize this moment of the lifecycle.

Firstly, no rush, a product in its decline stage continues to generate income, so it is not necessarily to take it off the market. Logically, you are in a period in which the cost of production should be the lowest in the entire life of the product, takes advantage of this. When you see objectively that it leads to nothing, you will have to consider the decision of whether you should unlist the product. But you can also "reinvent it" by adding some really extra distinguishing attribute, or you can simply include it as a complement to add value to other new products (which is also an option).

Let's say that the different stages have much to do with different types of customers´feelings. I am not referring to customer journey, it is more a matter of attitude towards the market and innovation when it comes to segment.

In the launch stage, for example, users first to arrive are innovators, people who know the market, test and has no fear of investing in a product out of mass consumption, even feel a certain pleasure with it. This is the kind of users we must captivate first.

During the growth stage, our audience is the early adopters, somewhat more conservative than innovators, but also prone to everything new. These will be followed by an early majority. Sometimes it is difficult to define a line or border between the stages.

Late majority comes into play when reaching maturity leading to laggards who will be the objective during the decline stage.