Product Life Cycle: Two real-world examples from India

Here are two examples of the PLC of famous Indian products, albeit with slight variations.

1. Amul butter

Launched in 1955, butter was one of the first products offered by Amul. Since then, the
product has gone through the first 4 stages of the PLC but shows no signs of entering the
fifth (decline). Despite competition from local and international brands, Amul continues to
remain one of India’s most enduring – and beloved – food brands.

2. Gold Spot (soft drink)

Gold Spot, an orange-flavoured carbonated drink was launched in 1952 by Parle Bisleri,
becoming one of India’s most popular Sdrinks by the mid-1970s. Millions of rupees were
spent on advertising and promotions to stay ahead of another very popular drink, the
American-owned Coca Cola.

In 1993, the brand’s owner Parle sold Gold Spot to Coca-Cola which had just re-launched in
the Indian market. Soon Coca-Cola discontinued Gold Spot in favour of launching its own
brand – Fanta.

Introductory stage in product life cycle of Maggi

Popular in many countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Nestle wanting to
explore the potential for such instant food/noodle brand in India, launched Maggi in the
year 1982. It took several years and lot of money for Nestle to establish its noodles brand in
India.

When Maggi noodles was launched in India it had segmented the based on age and urban
families targeting kids, youth and office goers positioning itself as fast to cook, 2 minute
noodles, with the tagline of “taste bhi, Health bhi”. Positioning however was not an issue, as
no instant noodle had been launched in India, Maggi was the first one.

In the initial stages, Maggi had high failure rates, frequent product modifications(to adjust
to Indian consumer), high marketing and product cost as they were trying to build product
awareness. With a lot of ups and downs and high failure rates, Maggi survived the
introductory stage.
Let us now see the next stage in the product life cycle of Maggi, the growth stage.

Growth Stage in Product Life Cycle of Maggi

Around 1985, the demand for Maggi had increased tremendously in India recovering their
developmental costs and increasing the sales rate. Maggi remained the monopoly in the
Indian Market till 1990, after which Top Ramen entered the market reducing the market
share of Maggi a little.

10 years back Maggi had 50% of the market, In order to increase its sales again, Maggi
introduced a new flavour in 1997 which wasn’t well accepted by the consumer, thus in
1999, Nestle re-launched its old flavour of Maggi, getting back on track in terms of sales.
Over the years, Nestle has also introduced many products under the Maggi brand, like the
ketchups, soup, oats, pasta, more noodle flavours etc.

Let us now see the next stage in the product life cycle of Maggi, the Maturity Stage.

Maturity Stage in Product Life Cycle of Maggi

During it’s maturity stage, Maggi’s sales were at peak, production costs were low and profits
were high. In 2003, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) was all set to take on Nestle’s Maggi
by launching a new category of liquid snacks under it’s food brand Knorr Annapurna.

Priced aggressively at 5Rs, the new product called Knorr Annapurna Soupy Snacks was made
available in 4 varieties. Like Maggi, it had a similar target market and positioned it in a
similar manner.

Also, Maggi faced tough competition from Top Ramen. That led to decline in sales, signifying
that Maggi had entered the maturity stage.

Maggi reaching the peak and seeing the sales rate declining launched a series of new
products. While keeping price aggressive at 5 Rs and made the distribution channel more
intensive to encourage their product over the competitor.
Let us now see the last stage in the product life cycle of Maggi, the Decline Stage.

Decline Stage in Product Life Cycle of Maggi

There were certain hiccups in the way- like the banning of Maggi. Due to high lead content
almost led us to believe that our favourite noodle brand is now off the shelf. And may be
reached its last phase, i.e., the decline stage.

Read the entire story of how Maggi escaped its death here!

But Nestle invested more in the research of Maggi and took corrective actions. For example,
Internal employee engagement, increased campaign, more activities on social media, and
revived back from the near disaster.

Talking about the current scenario, After the world was hit by the Corona Virus Pandemic In
the year 2019, Maggi sales shot up by 25% as consumers stayed home and stockpiled
instant noodles.
With increase in total and domestic sales by 8.1% and 8.5%, respectively, Maggi’s revenue in
the year 2020 and 2021 is continuing to increase. Maggi therefore escaped its death and
climbed back from the decline stage and recovered well.
These were the most important stages in the product life cycle of Maggi!
Extending product life cycle

Extension strategies:

 Change product– New and improved versions of the product can be released… version 2.0 and
then version 3.0.
 Change price– Price can be lowered to allow new customers to buy it.
 Change place– Products can be sold in different countries or territories to gain more sales.
 Change promotion– Different advertising or sales promotion techniques can prolong the life of
the product, giving it a new image.
 Change packaging– The style of the packaging may be changed to give the appearance of a
new and improved product.
 Change usage– Existing customers can be encouraged to buy more of the product or to use it
in a different way. For example breakfast cereals used advertising to show consumers
eating cereal at different times of the day.
 Change name– If a product has suffered from bad publicity and sales are falling, a tried and
tested technique is to simply change the name of the product.

CINEMAS EXAMPLE OF EXTENDED PLC

The very first introduction of a movie in a market is in cinema theatres.
TV release
Premium channel release
Vod / pay per view release
Retail and rental release
OTT Platforms.