Understanding and Managing Product Life Cycle

It is crucial to understand the complete product life cycle before introducing a new product or service in the market. One needs to understand that every product goes through certain stages starting from inception to its manufacturing, marketing, branding and finally losing popularity in the market. It is essential for the organizations to manage the product life cycle well as it ensures the product is launched successfully in the market and also gain popularity in no time eventually leading to increased sales and profitability of the organization.

Let us understand product life cycle in detail:

1. Product life cycle starts the moment an organization (more specifically product team) thinks of introducing a new product in the market. Getting ideas to design a new product or service marks the beginning of product life cycle.

   Understand the expectations of your target audience and how your product should offer something extra than your competitors. Know what you want. This is one of the most crucial stages in product life cycle as it decides whether the product will be able to survive the fierce competition and give other available brands in the market a run for their money.

   Planning at this stage is extremely crucial. Decide as to what the technical specifications should be, tentative price, target audience and how the product needs to be marketed. Jot down each and every detail neatly on a piece of paper so that you do not miss out on anything.

2. The next stage is when detailing takes place. It is the time to give shape to your ideas and thoughts to reach to a final product. Not all suggestions are practical so this stage also involves strict filtering of thoughts so that only relevant ideas can be implemented. Identify your vendors who can work in close association with you in the development or promotion of product. Budgets also need to be decided at this stage so that you do not end spending more than what you have.

3. This is the stage when organization starts manufacturing new products with all the available resources and manpower and also following the parameters and guidelines decided in stage No - 2. Make sure you employ skilled workers who are highly trained, know their job well , can work on specific softwares and deliver final products within the stipulated time frame with no defects. Quality is an extremely crucial parameter one needs to take care of.

   Make sure you never compromise on quality so that the final product not only meets but exceeds customers’ expectations. That’s the reason why organizations have a separate quality department who check each and every product thoroughly to ensure hundred percent product satisfaction. The checked product then goes to the packaging department and finally to distribution channels.

4. This is the time when the product is ready to be introduced in the market. Decide on your marketing strategies so that your product reaches to maximum end-users irrespective of their geographical location.

   Tie up with a good advertising agency who designs a catchy advertisement for your product.Get pamphlets distributed, hoardings and banners displayed at the most strategic locations for maximum visibility.

5. Once the product is in the market, do not forget to take customer feedbacks. After sales service is extremely important. Check regularly with dealers, distributors, outlets selling your products to find out if at all there are any kinds of customer complaints. If customer suggests any defects, make sure product is replaced or withdrawn from the market immediately.

Remember, information needs to flow in its desired form among all the stages of product development. Coordination is extremely crucial as the next stage is totally dependent on the previous step. Communication needs to be effective among all team members so that everyone is clear about his/her roles and responsibilities and contribute to the maximum.

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