Product Life Cycle

Product Life Cycle:

In order understand the various stages of a product with respect to its evolution in the market Product Life Cycle is a most referred model. It has four stages:

Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline.

PLC comes with a few drawbacks such: It describes the stage of the product alone and also it doesn’t give the idea about the market scenario. Therefore it is important to know how the product performs in the in the industry and how the industry functions and then come up with the chart. Thus we can extend the product life cycle stages to industry as well.

While the fabric detergent is in its maturity stage, Nirma is also in the maturity stage which comes under the popular brands of detergents. HUL leads the market while Nirma has less than 10% market share.

Nirma which started in 1969 has been in the market for more than four decades now and is still under profit.

Introduction Stage:

Nirma started with an amazing market strategy and became popular instantly. The low cost concept made it the leading brand. The existing fabric brand was Surf which was only for the premium customers. Started off as a small business which was distributed door to door it turned out to be a major success. The yellow powder which was packed in a plastic bag was the only variant available. Owing to its exclusive environment-friendly, phosphate-free formulation, the consumers converted to this brand, helping it to over-take the decades’ old brands.

Growth Stage:

Acquiring almost half of the market share in its growth stage, Nirma became the leading detergent giving a tough competition to Surf. Other brands started to enter the market with the same low cost segment strategy.

Maturity Stage

Setting off the myth that “better quality demands higher price”, Nirma introduced a new washing powder in the premium segment, in 1996. Available in 25g, 500g and 1000g packs, this product surpassed its competitor brands. Though, priced almost 40 % lesser, provided ‘value-for-money’ proposition. 

Introduction of other brands has declined the market share in the detergent industry. Although the demand of Nirma has declined over the years, it is still a brand which is widely used detergent in the rural areas and lower cost segment.