Where do you fall on the cycle?

A quick collection of thoughts regarding the Product Life Cycle

As consumers, we buy billions of products every day and spend trillions on goods and services. As many may know these products, goods, and services have a life cycle. That's right we along with the products, goods, and services we spend our hard-earned dollars on are traveling upon the level of time. The older, more established products believe it or not eventually become less popular, as some would say "they go out of style," while the newer, more innovative ones see increased demand. The more modern the good, the more convenient the service these days, the more likely demand for it will increase rapidly after it enters the market. Well of course there are other factors at play, it has to have the necessary investments, PR, marketing, and let's not forget it has to be a good product in the first place, I digress.

What I'm saying is Raymond Vernon was on to something when he developed this economic theory. Vernon discovered and was able to clearly articulate the below graphic. Of course, the below isn't his original rendering, but he basically said there are five stages a product, (service and even a brand/organization) will go through. Over time Vernon's theory itself has gone through this life cycle, as other scholars and marketing researchers have added and taken away over the years.

Regardless of who's sharing the theory or how they're talking about it, there's some truth here. Take for example the very first bottled water company, that's right in 1767 Jackson's Spa a Boston based company sold the first commercially distributed water in America and BOOM, it charted a path for companies like Perrier, Nestle, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, even Vitamin Water. A 2020 statista article written by Emma Bedford reported that "in 2018, the U.S. bottled water sales volume amounted to approximately 13.85 billion gallons." Why is that important? Well, when is the last time you drunk a refreshing Jackson's Spa water? Still not following, it's OK. Try this example: Blockbuster < Redbox < Every streaming service to date. It's product and service innovation at its best, and each of these companies find and/or found themselves somewhere within this cycle, and what they do as they recognize where they are matters.

Why am I written about this? It's simple, every organization rather you're a for- or non-profit have to understand this theory, you have to know where you are on the Product Life Cycle and embrace it. Brands and organizations have to find unique ways to continuously innovate, reintroduce, reclaim, retool, redesign, redevelop, rethink, recommit, (I'm running out of words). Are you catching what I'm throwing? According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), there are 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the U.S. According to data from the Census Bureau's Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, there were 5.6 million employer firms in the US in 2016. You can trust and believe you best have a unique value proposition, in layman's terms, you best have a reason to exist and a strong WHY you matter.

I could go on but in closing, a case can be made that a large percentage of our black-owned and operated media outlets have reached their maturity stage some would dare say they are on the decline. Let me introduce you to Substantial something more than just a product, we offer more than just a service and we’re quickly approaching our growth stage. Substantial is here to disrupt the market and bring with it a renewed enthusiasm for black news and positive stories that celebrate all that is Substantial about our community.

Will you join us, will you support us, will you share with the world that which we’ve always known, that #WeAreSubstantial and so is everything about us. Subscribe & Support and follow us along the journey. http://bit.ly/submagnc

Greg Hedgepeth, Award-winning marketing & communications professional, entrepreneur, higher education leader, professor, motivational speaker, and workshop facilitator.

Where do you fall on the cycle? As consumers, we buy billions of products every day and spend trillions on goods and services. As many may know these products, goods, and services have a life cycle. I invite you to read a quick collection of my thoughts and I'd love to hear yours. #marketingcommunications #productlifecyclemanagement #productinnovation