- The life of the physical components of a singular product from raw material, through production and use to disposal. This is generally used in sustainability contexts.
- The collective life of a model or product line, from introduction into the market through to decline. This is generally used in marketing and business contexts.
Why it matters
The product lifecycle matters because it provides a way to understand how a product behaves in the market over time and how businesses should adapt their strategy, investment, and resources accordingly.
It helps businesses make the right decisions at the right time, maximizing value from each product while preparing for what comes next, whilst considering the environmental impact it will have.
Components to Product Lifecycle
Environmental Product Lifecycle
The journey of a product, all the way from raw materials, through manufacture, sales, use and disposal, ideally coming back around as the waste is recycled into new products. Connecting the end of one life cycle to the beginning of another is a key goal of circular design.
- Raw material extraction: this is the mining, growing of raw materials from the earth. In the case of recycled materials, this is replaced with a process of material collection.
- Material refinement: The raw material is processed into a form used in the direct manufacture of the product. This can include several stages, for example wool requires scouring, sorting, carding, spinning and dying.
- Production: The individual parts are made using the refined materials and assembled into the product.
- Distribution: The products are transported to where they are sold.
- Retail: The product is displayed and sold.
- Use: The product is used. This can include both primary and secondary purposes, with cycles of repair and maintenance.
- Disposal: The product is discarded or recycled.
Examples
- Switching from plastic single use shopping bags to cotton re-usable bags greatly improves environmental impacts in the disposal phase as cotton is biodegradable, however the cotton requires water and fertiliser to grow. This means that it needs to be re-used over 200 times to be a more environmentally friendly option overall.
- Making a bench from wood rather than steel makes it biodegradable and renewable, likely reducing environmental impact during raw material extraction and disposal stages, but this may have negative effects during production and use phases, as it may not last as long and will require regular coats of potentially toxic preservatives.
- Using a more durable material can extend the use stage, but it may be heavier, increasing energy use during the distribution stage.
Marketing Product Life Cycle
This is the length of time that a good or service is available to customers. It shows and measures the popularity and marketability of a product.
- Development: This is everything that has to happen before the product hits the market including idea conception, development, design, testing, and production.
- Introduction: the product is launched on the market. At this stage the main challenge is to ensure that potential customers know about the product, understand its value, and can access it. This is when the product needs to make a strong first impression with early adopters.
- Growth: During this stage the product starts to take off in terms of popularity and sales, and profits increase.
- Maturity: The most profitable stage of the product life cycle. A company will get the most customer feedback during this stage, which can be used to innovate the next generation of products.
- Decline: As competition increases and the market climate changes, the product becomes less suited and sales decrease. A decision is made whether to move to new markets and target new customers or whether to withdraw the product entirely and focus on newer offerings.
Key Takeaways
- Using this model allows developers to plan for the future of the product and schedule investment accordingly.
- Generally the aim is to expand the growth phase as much as possible by increasing demand and reducing competition.
- This can be done by investing early in marketing, patents, and most crucially of all: good design.