"PLC" has a plan according to the development stage of the key market for strategic formulation (Nikkei Business)

The market development stage is divided into four stages: "introduction period", "growth period", "maturity period", and "decline period".

A business school where you can systematically learn human, goods, and money, which are the essentials of management.It is useful for many working people as a place to learn business.Globis Management Graduate School (MBA) has many leaders who have high aspirations to create business and reform society among such business schools.[Related images] "DX" and "M & A" are growing in demand, "diversification" is a mature period when growth is slow, and "production line improvement" is declining.Family teachers will provide business frameworks and mindset content required for business people.The fourth theme is PLC (Product Life Cycle).It indicates the stage of development of a product (product and service) market, and it is about to guide marketing strategies and business strategies according to the development stage.This is an essential framework for those involved in these strategies.I will explain how to incorporate this in practice.● What is PLC? PLC (Product Life Cycle: PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE) has a horizontal axis, sales as a vertical axis, and the market development stage is the “introduction period”, “growth period”, “maturity”, and “decline period”.It is divided into four stages.Usually draws an S -shaped curve.At each stage, there are distinctive features in the differences in customer understanding regarding product and usage, differences in competitiveness, and differences in marketing tissues.Along with that, marketing strategy tasks differ, so it is necessary to formulate marketing and business strategies that match each stage.Let's briefly explain the characteristics of each stage.(1) This is an early stage in the development of the market market.At this stage, sales are still small and there are not many competitions.There are many cases where the market is created by new technology.Recently, it can be said that metavers are the examples.At this stage, it is important to educate customers about how to use the product and the differences from conventional products.Companies need to create early demand as soon as possible.In particular, in businesses (eg, SNS, etc.), it is very important to share at this stage, especially in the first move (preliminary profit: the first player who has taken the market share in the first place).(2) Growth period New products are at the stage where the market size is getting bigger and larger.As a result, many competitors enter the market, and competition intensifies.The market is also subdivided, and products can be created according to specific segments.At this stage, it is common to create a unique characteristics of the company and differentiate it from other companies' products.In addition, it is often used to expand the lineup, not only one type of product.If it is a beverage, you will release many flavors.In recent years, such situations have been seen in carbonated water.(3) Mature, no matter what kind of product is, it does not continue to grow forever.In some cases, there is still room for growth if you look globally, but in a certain market (eg, the Japanese domestic market), the growth will stop at some point.When the market enters the maturation period, new entrants often decrease and the industrial structure tends to be fixed.In recent years, smartphone terminals are likely to be an example.The goal of companies that has stopped on the market will maintain market share and expand.It is also important to extend the maturity as much as possible.For example, automaker manufacturers are aiming to dig up demand by performing model changes.On the other hand, the first goal is to survive small -scale lower companies.Even if the market is mature, if there is a growth market abroad, it is often the case to aim for sharing there.(4) This is a phase where sales in the declining period market decrease.The top market share companies or companies that have a presence in a particular niche market can survive, but other companies will withdraw.The top market share companies will be able to get cash for relatively few investments.And instead of reinvesting the cache in the product, it often turns into new businesses.In Japan, if you have a profit, there are few cases of withdrawal, but in the case of Western companies that are severe in profits, the business may be sold because the growth has slowed down even if it is still profitable.。This is an example of ERA Unilever, who sold the "Lipton" business of tea last year.The reason for the market to decline is that the needs have decreased, but there are not many cases where customers have the fundamental needs.Of course, in some cases, such as smallpox vaccines, truly fundamental needs have disappeared (in Japan, smallpox eradicated in the 1950s), which is a rare case.Most of the reasons for that, in most cases, a different form of products that meet the fundamental needs, so -called alternatives.For example, the fundamental needs of people who want to leave memories as images and want to keep records as images will not disappear.But there is no need to be a silver salt film.The silver salt film has entered the decline since the 1990s, which is the appearance of a digital camera alternative.The same is true for Garakae (conventional mobile phone) to be replaced with smartphones.It is still uncertain what will happen after Corona's evil, but some views that flights and accommodation associated with overseas business trips will not be returned to a considerable part of the online conference.Companies often tend to be attracted to the movement of rivals in the same industry in front of them, but keep in mind that the market to decline is rather an alternative from other industries.