Product Life Cycle Stages
📌 The Product Life Cycle (PLC) spans from a product's introduction to its removal from the market, guiding decisions on advertising, pricing, and packaging.
📈 The four major stages of the PLC are Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline.
📉 Most new products fail during the Introduction stage, never reaching the growth phase.

Detailed Stage Analysis
🌱 Introduction Stage: Sales are slow as market awareness is built; success depends on meeting customer needs, but most products fail here.
🚀 Growth Stage: Demand sees a sharp upturn, requiring increased production, while branding becomes crucial as competitors enter the market.
⏸️ Maturity Stage: Sales growth slows due to a saturated market; emphasis shifts to branding, price, and product differentiation to maintain market share.
📉 Decline Stage: Occurs due to rising competition or innovations that supersede the product (e.g., VCRs superseded by streaming), often leading companies to reduce production or move on.

Real-World PLC Examples
💻 Typewriters moved quickly through introduction, growth, and maturity before entering decline due to the advent of word processors and computers.
💿 VCRs reached maturity but are now deep in the decline stage, effectively obsolete following the introduction of DVDs and streaming services.
🚗 Electric Vehicles (EVs) are currently experiencing the growth stage, driven by continuous design improvements and fast-growing sales, but are not yet mature.
🤖 AI Products are often in the introduction stage, as many innovations are still under development and awaiting widespread consumer adoption (e.g., autonomous vehicles).

Strategies to Maintain the Mature Stage
💡 Successfully extending the maturity stage requires understanding industry evolution, such as transitioning advertising from radio/newspapers to social media.
👥 Companies must continuously track and adapt to changing consumer needs; for instance, camera companies adapted from bulky instant-print cameras to small digital cameras for the same target age group.
🔬 Incorporating innovative technology helps firms remain competitive and differentiate offerings, as seen with startups integrating smartphone tech into wearable watches.
🌟 Rebranding efforts should consider evolving consumer perceptions, such as shifting focus to environmental concerns (e.g., launching reusable products) to maintain a positive relationship.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ The PLC is a critical concept used by business professionals to determine when to increase advertising, reduce prices, or expand markets.
➡️ To prolong maturity, businesses must be proactive in adapting marketing strategies to match generational shifts in consumer expectations and priorities.
➡️ Innovation in technology and product features is vital, even in the mature stage, to continue differentiating the offering from established competitors.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Jan 14, 2026, 00:29 UTC