Comparison between Product Life Cycle and Human Life Cycle

Philip Kotler, “The product life-cycle is an attempt to recognise distinct stages in the sales history of the product.”

Like a human being, a product has also a certain length of life. Again, like a human being, a product has also to pass through certain identifiable stages in its life. As the life of a human being can be divided into six stages — Infant, Childhood, Youth, Adult, Old and Death, in the same manner life of a product can also be divided into six parts — (1) Introduction, (2) Growth, (3) Maturity, (4) Saturation, (5) Decline, and (6) Obsolescence. These six stages are collectively known as the Life-cycle of a product.

The main stages of the product life cycle, when compared with human life cycle, stated above, give following result –

1. Introduction [birth] – researching, developing and then launching the product
2. Growth [adolescence] – when sales are increasing at their fastest rate
3. Maturity [youth] – sales are near their highest, but the rate of growth is slowing down, e.g., new competitors in market or saturation
4. Decline [death] – final stage of the cycle, when sales begin to fall