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roducts for Growth (HBR , Moon Youngme , 1995)
INTRODUCTION
GROWTH
MATURITY
DECLINE
Swatch repositioned the category by changing the perception that watches were also affordable fashion accessories

Apple repositioned Mac Mini outside its category to enhance diffusion and quick penetration to growth stage

Ikea stripped attributes in it's offerings but created a novel store experience moving products back from maturity to growth stages.

结论：拥有PLC比其本身更长寿-Conclusion :Has the PLC outlived itself

The popular notion that products follow a pattern of birth, growth, maturity and then decline appears to be flawed logic, as conditions prevailing in the biological world are not true for the marketing world. The product phases cannot be accurately judged (for example video game industry boomed and faded like a typical fad). Products jump from introductory to maturity stage, and sometimes even gain a new lease of life or rebirth thanks to smart marketing campaigns (Moon, 1995). Many product classes because they satisfy basic human needs (e.g.toothpaste) have lived long lives not adhering to the life cycle pattern highlighting that PLC is based on qualitative measures.

Marketing Science Institute in its validation for over 100 consumer durable products arrived at a hypothesis that PLC was slightly better than a chance model in explaining sales behavior as only about 20% of products followed the life cycle stages, with an even lesser relevance for brands (Polli and Cook 1969 ). Over time as the marketing concept has enlarged , weaknesses have emerged when we try to fit the PLC to cover high tech products (Tiger and Farrivar, 1981) , consumer durables (Harrell and Taylor,1981) and services (Buskirk ,1986) . The key utility of PLC has been perceived to be in forecasting and pre-planning (Levitt,1965). However, Kotler(1988) accepts that its value in forecasting is also limited , it being more applicable to historical sales patterns, for planning and control .

In today's environment where marketing is focusing itself to meet individual customer needs; technology and management techniques focus on marketing environmental analysis . At product and brand level, conjoint analysis and diffusion models provide accurate estimates of customer behavior and decision making while market modeling techniques are used to solve situation analysis problems. Consumer behavior looks at purchase decisions over the product's life covering 'first' versus 'repeat' purchases , 'innovative first purchase' versus. ' imitative first purchase' and choosing between 'incumbent' and 'substitute' products as a starting point rather than using the sales pattern (Paul ,2002).The limitations are not with the PLC but with its proponents ignoring evolutionary market trends and placing undue reliance on the sales curve. In applying predetermined solutions to marketing situations, companies become predictable and vulnerable to smaller competitors .

It is evident that PLC alone cannot serve the purpose as a marketing tool . It's application has to be combined with a consideration of underlying factors and processes relevant to a market situation. A PLC forecast should not become a fait accompli but be one of the many options available that have a dependence on a robust information system, understanding of market forces and competition (Day, 1