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Human beings go through a typical life cycle starting from
a new born baby to the teen or adolescent stage, followed
by adulthood and geriatric phase that culminates in death.
In all these phases, a human being, irrespective of age,
transforms from one role to another. Every stage has its
own importance—as a young baby or a teen he is nurtured
and allowed to grow under the able guidance and prying eyes
of his parents which helps him develop his thought process
so as to become a good human being and achieve his goal.
Once into the adulthood, the grown-up becomes a productive
member of the whole family and starts paying back the investments
made till date by the parents in terms of education, food,
cloth, shelter, and time in grooming his personality. Once
he starts working takes on the mantle of the family from
the aged parents. However, a sensible human being would
always keep this learning curve active as he understands
the importance to imbibe new `arms and ammunition' not only
for his individual survival but also for making his next
progeny give shape to their dreams and hopes. His success
has a positive impact on the next in command as they can
always fall back on the expertise of the senior pros apart
from riding piggy during the tough times.
PLC, in more ways, resembles to that of HLC. According
to Philip Kotler, PLC asserts four things: product has a
limited life; product sales pass through distinct stages
each posing different challenges and opportunities to the
seller and profits rise and fall at different stages of
the product life cycle; Product requires different marketing,
financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource
strategies in each life cycle stage. (Source: Marketing
Management, Philip Kotler, Eleventh Edition, Pearson Education,
INC.) It is pretty evident from what the renowned marketing
guru said in his book that PLC matches HLC in more ways
than one. Hence, marketers and manufacturers have to understand
their own life cycle to put across the learning concepts
and observations while giving shape and wings of their new
products, growing services or even the declining product
at the marketplace. PLC is considered the backbone of success
in formulating strategies as product needs different focus
and treatment at different phases of its life, as the dynamics
in the external environment also changes at a brisk pace.
For instance, a brand like Lifebuoy, which was considered
one of the successful brands in the toiletries portfolio
of Hindustan Unilever Limited, was suddenly found losing
the momentum as witnessed by eroding sales. With the emergence
of new companies and better variants, brand Lifebuoy suddenly
started moving southwards. The company officials saw the
brand losing all its focus and importance in the marketplace.
To allow the brand to die a natural death with the transitory
phases would be tantamount to allowing a family member die
a slow death due to a minor ailment, which could very well
be cured with the right and timely treatment. It would also
have compelled the company to look for new brands in the
marketplace which would have been more challenging and expensive
vis-à-vis an established brand like the Lifebuoy.
It could have also had an impact on the brand extensions
of Lifebuoy like liquid soap. Therefore, the company officials
put on their thinking caps on and came out with a repositioning
strategy and came out with Lifebuoy Plus enabling the brand
to be targeted to even the feminine segment-Lifebuoy until
now was more of a masculine brand to expand. The new look,
packaging and fragrance also enabled the brand extending
its target segment and even the ones who were little more
conscious and had a softer approach towards the usage of
toilet soap were drawn into its fold.
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