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, 2008) . Technologies from internet to biotechnology are fundamentally changing relationships of companies to the societies in which they operate with social concerns covering environmental impact and corporate social responsibility assuming great importance. advertising in no more restricted to traditional means like TV, print media or broadcasts ,but has changed to include channels like Second Life , social networking , iPod , podcasts and computers. For example, SMS activity is a key marketing media vehicle in India and China(Soberman David ,2004). By breaking down distinction between products and services, (e.g.: home TV, mobile phones), and with more direct involvement of customers in the buying process (e.g.: eBay , Netflix) the sales distribution system has undergone a change .

The knowledge component of products and services has increased dramatically, knowledge as a source of business value has become critical for success . Market leaders are those who create and combine knowledge into new product and services faster than their competitors. This linked to the power of the internet has changed the fundamentals of doing business . As new ways of building and delivering products and services online emerge, competition goes beyond existing competitors to new companies , new innovations or ways of improving products . While speed to market is important , the evidence is that winners in emerging markets are those who dominate the phase of 'early growth' via fast penetration and a shortened 'time to market' (Patrick Barwise ,1995) .

The age of the active consumer is here to stay. Marketers need to see their customers as individuals with life time equity which needs to be retained by creating customer loyalty. Consumers today want to be in control. They want personalized products at competitive prices with an option to choose. This paradigm shift has brought the customer closer to the company. Products today are customized and marketing messages developed with customer participation in a YouTube world. The market place is becoming a forum where customers dynamically participate in product related activities (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2000). Customer involvement creates linkages between the demand and supply side forces. This has a bearing on the speed of diffusion of innovation and the market strategy firms need to adapt over the life of a product.

Derived from the theory of diffusion of innovations, PLC is based on market conditions and requirements providing a framework to guide marketing strategies (Kotler,1984). Relative stability and growing affluence of the 1960s saw the PLC being positioned as an indicator of market dynamics describing the four stages taken by most products from introduction to decline. Due to absence of any research validating the concept and lack of empirical backing, it's use as a predictive model in determining the timing of changes or alternative strategies to be adopted at each stage of the life cycle is limited. The definition of PLC has changed over the years, starting from market and brand life cycles by Levitt (1965) to Demand Life Cycles by (Kotler 2000) (Laurie ,1990) . Polli and Cook in 1969 suggested that the life cycle pattern was best captured by product class as a unit of analysis (Mary and George S , 1989) ; however Tellis and Crawford in 1981 felt that while brands are difficult to model ,PLC has little validity for product forms . Exhibit 1 shows the life cycle trends in filter