Describe the product life cycle, naming and explaining what characterizes each stage

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: Product Life Cycle measures these stages of growth, and these measurements enable the company's management to make decisions about whether to continue selling the product, when to introduce new follow-up products, and when to introduce changes to an existing product.
? In the introductory stage, marketers present their product to potential consumers. Initial high levels of acceptance are rare. Generally, new products must break into existing markets and compete with established products. Advertising and promotion help the new product gain recognition among potential customers, who must get information about the product and the needs it can satisfy. The cost of marketing a product at this level of the life cycle is usually high because small businesses must overcome customer resistance and inertia. Therefore, profits are generally low, or even negative, at the introductory stage.
? After the introductory stage, the product enters the growth and acceptance stage. In this stage, customers begin to purchase the product in large numbers, allowing sales to rise and profits to increase. Products that reach this stage, however, do not necessarily become successful. If in the introductory or the growth stage the product fails to meet consumer needs, it does not generate adequate sales volume and eventually disappears from the marketplace. For a product to be successful, sales and profit margins must continue to rise through the growth stage.
? In the maturity and competition stage, sales volume continues to rise, but profit margins peak and then begin to fall as competitors enter the market. Normally, this causes a reduction in the product's selling price to meet competitor's prices and to hold its share of the market. Sales peak in the market saturation stage of the product life cycle and give the marketer fair warning that it soon will be time to introduce a new product innovation.
? The final stage of the product life cycle is the product decline stage in which sales continue to drop, and profit margins fall drastically. However, when a product reaches this stage of the cycle, it does not mean that it is doomed to failure. Products that have remained popular are always being revised. No company can maintain its sales position without product innovation and change.