PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

OF
26/08/09

Presentation by:

1.AVICK BISWAS

MARKETING MANAGEMENT
“ To make cleanliness commonplace, to lessen
work for women, to foster health and contribute
to personal attractiveness, that life may be
more enjoyable and rewarding for the people

”
who use our products.

William Hesketh Lever

Doing well and doing good.

INTRODUCTION TO PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
• The course of a products sales and profits over its lifetime is called the
product life cycle.

• PLC shows the stages that products go through from development to withdrawal
from the market.

• Product Life Cycle (PLC):

– Each product may have a different life cycle.

– PLC determines revenue earned.

– Contributes to strategic marketing planning

– To identify when a product needs support, redesign, renovating , withdrawal,

etc.
 PLC OF LUX SOAP
• INTRODUCTION TO LUX:

“GLAMOUR FACTOR”

• We all want to be pampered, to look and feel great And that's just what Lux offers you on a
daily basis at a price you can afford.

• Lux is the brand of UNILEVER INDIA LTD. It has been winning hearts of INDIAN consumers
for 80 years.

• Lux stands for the promise of beauty and glamour as one of India's most trusted personal
care brands.
LUX PRODUCTS : Lux had modified their product into:

• Orchid touch Almond delight Energising fruit Aqua sparkle

 INTRODUCTION STAGE
• Lux launched the world’s first mass-market beauty soap in the US in 1924 & had been
launched in India in 1929.

• At that time there was only one competitor of Lux, which was from its own brand
“LIFEBUOY”.

• In the initial stages Lux was introduced in the major cities of INDIA like Calcutta, Mumbai
etc.

• MARKETING OBJETIVES - was to create the product awareness and to attract the
customers towards the product.

• The Lux MARKETING STRATEGIES in the initial stages :

• Product = They offer only on product in the market. They did not come up with the
differentiated product.

• Price = In the initial stages of the product, they offer the relatively higher price than their
competitor (LIFEBUOY). Because, they want to recover their initial cost of making the
product.
 INTRODUCTION STAGE continued…
• Advertising = In the initial stages, they allocate more advertising budget So that more and
more customers could be attracted towards the product.
• In ads they targeted the early adopters, who were readiest to buy the product.
• The first ambassador, Leela Chitnis.

Distribution = was selective and only covers the major cities of INDIA to get recognition in
those cities.
• Their distribution channel was through: Manufacturer Wholesaler & Retailer
Introduction
IntroductionStage
Stageof
ofthe
theLUX
LUX
Low
Lowsales
sales
Sales
Sales
High
Highcost
costper
percustomer
customer
Costs
Costs
Negative
Negative
Profits
Profits

Create
Createproduct
productawareness
awarenessinin major
majorcities
citiesininIndia
India
Marketing
MarketingObjectives
Objectives

Product
ProductStrategy
Strategy Offer
Offeraabasic
basicproduct
product

Price
PriceStrategy
Strategy Use
Usecost-plus
cost-plus

Distribution
DistributionStrategy
Strategy Build
Buildselective
selectivedistribution
distribution
Build
Buildproduct
productawareness
awarenessamong
amongearly
earlyadopters
adopters
Advertising
AdvertisingStrategy
Strategy and dealers.
and dealers.
 GROWTH STAGE
• In the growth stage, their sales rapidly started rising.
• They have expanded their market to the other cities of INDIA.

• MARKETING OBJECTIVES = The marketing objectives of the Lux were to expand their
market to the other cities of INDIA.
• Another objective was to maximize more market share.
 
• In the growth stage, company had the following MARKETING STRATEGIES :

• Product = In the growth stage, the company had offered the same product in the market.

• Price = In this stage, the company had changed their price to some extent because of
maximizing the market share. ( Slightly cut down the prices )

• Advertising = In the growth stage, they had increased their advertising budget as in the
initial stages because of attracting the new customers or to retain the existing customers.
• Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Zeenat Amaan, Juhi Chawla, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi
 GROWTH STAGE CONTNUED….
• Distribution = In this stage, company had expanded their market to the other cities of
INDIA. Their distribution channel was the same as in the initial stages of the product.

• Promotion = In the growth stage, the company had also used the different proportioning
strategies to attract the new and the existing customers.

Growth
GrowthStage
Stageof
ofthe
theLUX
LUX

Sales
Sales Rapidly
Rapidlyrising
risingsales
sales

Costs
Costs Average
Averagecost
costper
percustomer
customer

Profits
Profits Rising
Risingprofits
profits

Marketing
MarketingObjectives
Objectives Maximize
Maximizemarket
marketshare
share

Product
ProductStrategy
Strategy Offer
Offerproduct
productextensions,
extensions,services
services

Price
PriceStrategy
Strategy Price
Priceto
topenetrate
penetratemarket
market

Distribution
DistributionStrategy
Strategy Build
Buildintensive
intensivedistribution
distribution

Advertising Build
Buildawareness
awarenessand
andinterest
interestin
inthe
themass
AdvertisingStrategy
Strategy mass
market
market
 MATURITY STAGE
• They modified the product by adding some changes in the product.
• In this stage, few competitors enter into the market like ( CINTHOL, FAIRGLOW,
SANTOOR, CHANDRIKA, FIAMA DI WILLS and VIVEL ).

• The company has expanded their market to almost all the cities of INDIA.
 
• MARKETING OBJECTIVES = The marketing objective of Lux is to maximize more profit
while defending the market share. And to expand the market to all the cities of INDIA.
 
• MARKETING STRATEGIES In this stage are based on:

• Product = The Lux has made the modification in the product by introducing:
Lux Almond, Lux Orchid , Lux Fruit, Lux Saffron, Lux Sandalwood, Lux Rose,
Lux International, Lux Chocolate, Lux Aromatic Extracts, Lux Oil and Honey.etc
 
• Price = The Lux products are now available at higher prices in the market, the reason
behind is that the company’s marketing objectives is to maximize more profit.

• Distribution = Now Lux products are available in almost all the cities of INDIA. Their
distribution channel is same as in the initial stage.
 MATURITY STAGE CONTINUED…
• Advertising = In this stage Lux advertising has been reduced to some extent because of
the more brand awareness in the minds of customers.
Recently, they have shown Aishwarya Rai , kareena kapoor & Shah Rukh khan .

• PROMOTIONAL OFFERS : ----

• Like buy 3 get 1 free.

Maturity
MaturityStage
Stageofofthe
the LUX
LUX

Sales
Sales Peak
Peaksales
sales

Costs
Costs Low
Lowcost
costper
percustomer
customer

Profits
Profits High
Highprofits
profits
Marketing Maximize
Maximizeprofit
profitwhile
whiledefending
defending market
MarketingObjectives
Objectives share
market
share
Product
ProductStrategy
Strategy Diversify
Diversifybrand
brandand
andmodels
models
Price
PriceStrategy
Strategy Price
Priceto
tomatch
matchor
orbest
bestcompetitors
competitors

Distribution
DistributionStrategy
Strategy Build
Buildmore
moreintensive
intensivedistribution
distribution
Advertising
AdvertisingStrategy
Strategy Stress
Stressbrand
branddifferences
differencesand
andbenefits
benefits
 DECLINE
• STAGE
Besides of all campaigns for the sales promotion of Lux .The reasons for its decline are :

• 1. Currency fluctuations: Unilever products are in over 100 countries worldwide, As a

result, it is exposed to adverse currency fluctuations.
• For instance, in 2004, a 5.9% decline in turnover was primarily due to a 4% appreciation in
the average Euro exchange rate.

• 2. SLOWDOWN: In year 2008 - 09 due to hard economic conditions in INDIA and other
countries the sales were highly affected as the consumer started looking for some
alternate products with a cheaper price than Lux.

• 3. Competition: Lux has been facing competition from HUL itself (Lifebuoy) & from other
companies like:-

• Godrej Consumer Products : GCPL, India’s second largest soap maker with 9.2% market
share.
• with leading brands such as CINTHOL, FAIRGLOW & NIKHAR.
• Fairglow brand, India's first Fairness soap, has created marketing history as one of the
most successful innovations.
 DECLINE STAGE
CONTINUED…
Wipro : The presence of Wipro in the toilet soap industry can be seen through their brands such
as SANTOOR and CHANDRIKA.
• In the southern market of India it is a major market player in toilet soap.

ITC : It entered the segment last year and has made a strong headway in a short time by
growing to 1.75% in just five months. With the brands like: Superia, Fiama Di Wills and
Vivel.

Decline
DeclineStage
Stageof
ofthe
theLUX
LUX
Sales
Sales Declining
Decliningsales
sales

Costs
Costs Low
Lowcost
costper
percustomer
customer

Profits
Profits Declining
Decliningprofits
profits

Marketing
Marketingobj
obj Reduce
Reduceexpenditure
expenditureand
andmilk
milkthe
thebrand
brand
Product
ProductStrategy
Strategy Phase
Phaseout
outweak
weakitems
items
Price
PriceStrategy
Strategy Cut
Cutprice
price
Go
Goselective:
selective:phase
phaseout
outunprofitable
unprofitable
Distribution
DistributionStrategy
Strategy outlets
outlets
Advertising
AdvertisingStrategy
Strategy Reduce
Reducetotolevel
levelneeded
neededto
toretain
retainhard-core
hard-core
loyal customers
loyal customers
Film stars promoting the product Lux

Thank you