49. Shrinking Life Cycle of Brands

Source: News Breed Marketing

"The whole history of life is a record of cycles"- Ellsworth Huntington

This quote holds true for brands as much as it applies to people. Brands, like people, have life cycles. This is known as the product life cycle and it is divided into four stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. The life cycle of a product is extremely important if we take into account important decision making related to business.

Since the last decade, we see a drastic shrinkage in the life of a product cycle. An average company is launching a new product every three years. In fact, replacing a product or service line is becoming a practice seen across many industries. One of the major reasons for this is the introduction of new technology. Because of the ongoing digital revolution, it is believed that we have experienced 100 years of change in only 10 years. As a result, every aspect of our lives have changed. It is only natural that product lifecycles are changing too. Disruptive technologies have significantly lowered the barriers of entry of new products. A very good example of this is the flip phone. The flip phone, which was one of the most popular cell phone back in the 2000s have almost disappeared!

We live in an era where quality is the new commodity. Companies and brands around the world are focusing on providing quality service at a good price. We see a continuous product innovations and market fragmentation. Customers today have more choices than ever before. As a result, products that fail to compete and adopt to the changing dynamics, dies in the process.

Hence, brands should find ways to respond to the changes, and should consider innovation as their new best friend. Brands should be prepared to experiment in the field of technology than ever before.