Do you remember Blockbuster? In the ‘90s and early 2000s, it was easily the largest video rental chain in the nation, with at least one store in nearly every city or town. Today, though, it’s virtually nonexistent, with only a single remaining location.

So, what happened to Blockbuster? The answer is that, over the span of around three decades, it went through the full product life cycle. From its conception to its collapse, it experienced a full arc of successes and failures — and it’s far from the only business to have done so.

But what is the product life cycle, and what does it look like when a brand goes through it? We’ll answer both of those questions in the product life cycle overview below, plus we’ll discuss how you can optimize for each stage of the cycle.

Read on to learn more, and then consider partnering with WebFX’s team of over 300 experts for our digital marketing services. Just call 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!

What is the product life cycle?

The product life cycle, or PLC, refers to the journey a product or brand goes through from its creation to its extinction. It begins the moment a product launches, and ends when that product is finally taken off the shelves for good.

The reason it’s beneficial to know about the product life cycle is because depending on which stage of it your business is currently in, you’ll want to take a different approach with your marketing. You also want to do all you can to keep yourself in the earlier stages and avoid your company’s decline.

Stages of the product life cycle

Like many things, the PLC is a spectrum. That said, we can divide it into four main stages:

1. Introduction
2. Growth
3. Maturity
4. Decline

We’ll look at each of the PLC stages in more detail below, along with examples of each one and how your marketing should adapt to them!

1. Introduction

The first of the PLC stages is the introduction stage, where your product is first introduced into the market. Most people won’t know about your product at this stage, so it’s a struggle to make people aware of it and convince them of its benefits.

Example: The iPhone

Back in 2007, Steve Jobs and Apple released the first iPhone. At first, the product was met with skepticism by many people — who needs a touchscreen?

To promote the product, Jobs spent an hour on stage talking about it during its initial announcement. Apple then spent six months running marketing campaigns that hyped up the benefits of this new device before it was even released.

 

 

How to optimize for the Introduction stage

At this stage, you want to focus most of your marketing on brand awareness. Since you’re just starting out with your business or product, most people don’t know you, so it’s your job to introduce them to your business and tell them what you do.

Social media ads, paid search ads, and introductory website content are all good strategies to employ at this stage.

2. Growth

The growth stage is where your business first finds success. At this stage, you’re getting a lot of publicity, and you’re constantly gaining new customers and expanding your budget. In many ways, it’s like the “honeymoon phase” of the product life cycle.

Example: Air fryers

The air fryer was first invented in 2010, but it wasn’t until 2015 that it exploded into popularity. It then spent the next five years progressing through the growth stage.

Between 2018 and 2020, air fryer brands hardly even had to run their own marketing due to the popularity of the product across social media — people were constantly posting about how much they loved their air fryers.

 

 

How to optimize for growth

During the growth stage, you should aim to keep expanding your product line. That means you should continue your brand awareness marketing, but also start shifting your focus from “here’s who we are” to “here’s what makes our products so great.”

Since people will search for your products a lot at this stage, search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising are two of the best strategies to use to reach these leads.

3. Maturity

The most profitable of the PLC stages is the maturity stage. At this stage, your business has become well-established in the market and is generating a steady flow of revenue. However, competitors are now springing up left and right trying to sell the same product.

Example: Netflix

Netflix may have had humble beginnings, but by the mid-2010s, it had become the biggest streaming platform in the world. Countless films and TV shows were available there at various points, from The Office to Indiana Jones.

However, despite Netflix becoming a staple of Friday movie nights across the globe, its success also spawned a bevy of competitors like Hulu and Disney Plus. As a result, Netflix has since had to work hard to stay in the game and keep driving high revenue.

How to optimize for maturity

Since the maturity stage brings so many new competitors, one of your biggest priorities should be persuading your audience that your brand is the best one. Advertise all the ways you stand out from the competition, while continuing to highlight the benefits you offer customers.

The best marketing strategy here is a well-rounded one, where you use everything from SEO to social media to email marketing to advertise online.

4. Decline

The final stage in our product life cycle overview is decline. Every business wants to avoid this stage, because it’s where the demand for your products goes down and you stop stocking them. At the bottom of this stage is extinction, which obviously isn’t desirable.

Example: Blockbuster

We already touched on Blockbuster earlier in this post as the biggest video rental chain of the ‘90s and early 2000s. If you wanted to watch a movie that was out of theaters, Blockbuster was the place to go.

But with the rise of streaming platforms in the late 2000s, Blockbuster began to flounder. Eventually, it became so outcompeted that the entire chain shut down, except for one store that was preserved purely for nostalgic purposes.

How to optimize for decline

Despite decline often leading to extinction, that isn’t a guarantee. A business whose products enter this stage can still recover if they market themselves correctly. The best strategy is to figure out a way to rebrand yourself and your products, changing along with the times.

For this stage, things like social media and paid advertising are excellent tools. You essentially want to reintroduce yourself to your audience, which means it can be helpful to use methods like those in the introduction stage.

WebFX can help you master the product life cycle

Now that you understand how the product life cycle works, you can better gauge how to optimize your marketing for whichever stage your products are currently in — and WebFX can help you do that.

With our digital marketing services, you’ll get help optimizing your campaigns for a variety of online strategies. You’ll also receive a dedicated account representative who will keep in touch with you about everything we do for your marketing.

To get started with us, just call 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!