The life cycle concept revisited: aid or albatross?

The product lifecycle concept has been an established model for marketing analysis and planning for over 40 years. Despite the fact that during that time it has been periodically challenged as a framework, both with regard to form and content, substantial empirical evidence has now accumulated to confirm the existence of the predominantly bell-shaped, four-phase, lifecycle representation of sales in many markets. There has, however, been relatively little exploration of the characteristics of each phase of the cycle. This study provides evidence on how phases of the cycle differ with regard to market conditions, strategies pursued and performance outcomes. It concludes that many of the differences predicted by the theory are not supported by the evidence and that both strategy and performance differences are more related to market position than stage of lifecycle.

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