The product life cycle is the term used to describe the “sequence of stages from introduction to growth, maturity, and decline” for a new product (The Product Life Cycle, 2010, p.1). The introduction stage occurs when the company works to build awareness of the product and develop a market and a target audience for the product; the 4 P’s of the marketing mix are employed in this stage (The Product Life Cycle, 2010). In the growth stage, the company is working to build preference for their brand while increasing their overall and total market share (The Product Life Cycle, 2010).
The third stage, maturity, occurs when the strong growth that was once present in sales starts to decline and similar products start becoming readily available on the market as made by competition; the purpose at this stage is to try to keep as much of the market share as possible while maximizing the profit that may still be made on this product (The Product Life Cycle, 2010). The final stage, decline, is when the product is in decline; there is little demand for the product and sales are flagging; the company must make a decision whether to try to maintain and rejuvenate the product, reduce costs associated with the product and offer it to a niche in the market, or discontinue the product entirely (The Product Life Cycle, 2010).
A product that I believe is nearing the end of its product life cycle is League of Legends. League of Legends is a massive multiplayer online game in which teams of either three or five individuals battle against similarly grouped teams to see who comes out the victor as a result of employed strategies (League of Legends, 2015). The main signs that the company leaders are ignoring have to do with the dozens of other similar games that are coming out like League, the fact that many of their streamers are leaving the game in order to play other games because they do not see a future in the game, and the fact that though the graphics change, there is, in essence, no new content being added, reducing interest. If the company wished to revitalize the game, they would need to redesign the combat, add in additional maps, change up the gameplay, and increase the amount of characters and the manner in which they operate.
- Na.leagueoflegends.com. (2015). League of Legends. Retrieved 31 January 2015, from http://na.leagueoflegends.com/
- Quickmba.com. (2010). Product Life Cycle. Retrieved 31 January 2015, from http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/product/lifecycle/
