Every product has its own lifecycle. A product is born, it is developed, it grows old and in due course, it dies. However, there are certain products that have retained their position in the market since a very long time and this is exactly where marketing analysis comes in.

A product lifecycle analysis is a prediction of how a product sells and stays in the market over time. A product typically goes through five stages:

• Launch
• Growth
• Maturity
• Saturation
• Decline

Launch

Nutri-Gain was initially developed to meet the demand of busy people who missed breakfast. Its intention was to provide a healthy cereal breakfast that is portable and convenient. When it was launched, it did very well and was an immediate success overtaking more than 50% share of the cereal market in less just two years.

Growth

The growth of the products steadily increased as the product started becoming highly popular and became a staple for every busy individual. The company made sure that their product comes out in different versions and flavor to keep up to customer demand. This is a great way to keep up the inquisitiveness of target audiences without having to develop a new product and spend money on production and equipments. The company slowly moved the ‘purpose’ of the product from a ‘healthy breakfast’ to an ‘all day healthy snack’.

Maturity

This is a time when a product reaps the maximum benefit and profit from it sales. However, this is also a time for competitions to take over and give a company a tough time. This is exactly when Kellogg's, Twists and Minis entered the market.

Saturation

This is the fourth stage of every product lifecycle and this is where customers have other preferences that are cheaper and better. When saturation occurs, a product starts to decline.

Not every product goes through these stages precisely, but the demand for a particular product in the market depends upon the economy, lifestyle changes, customer preference, target audience and availability of a product. For example, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes have retained a share in the market since a very long time and has consistently kept their demand sustained whatsoever. Growth is a stage that happens within a few months of a product launch or may take even several years.

Take Nutri-Gain for example. It took several years for it to grow in the market. One of the most critical stages of product lifecycle is in its research and development stage. It is the stage where a company designs a particular product to meet specific demands of the market. Predicting the status of a product in the market and how its demand fluctuates over time is the only way that a company can stay successful.

Before the decline comes, a company should make key business decision and do something innovative to keep their business up on sales. An entrepreneur should know how their product is doing in the market so that they can come up with innovative strategies. iGoStartup has a ready-made tool that helps an individual to realize the market challenges in each stage of a product and set up alternative marketing strategies. The tool just takes five minutes of your time, but it helps you to measure product performance with similar product launches in the past and help you to control and design your market decisions.