ABSTRACT
A product that is introduced onto the market will sell very little in the beginning. When the product becomes better known, the number of products sold will rise and turnover will increase. At a given moment, the market will be saturated and turnover will decline. It is therefore important for the enterprise to be able to estimate in which phase of the product life cycle (PLC) a product or service is placed, to obtain an impression of the possible turnover and profits. In this manner, new products can be introduced before sales of the old product are expected to decline. The PLC has five phases: introduction, growth, maturity, saturation, and decline. The result of the use of the PLC model is that the enterprise receives insight into a possibly expected sales prognosis for the product or service and it becomes clear that the enterprise must start with the development of new products or services to replace the existing ones.
