Blockbuster is an American DVD rental company that  was founded in 1985. in 2004 Blockbuster had more  

than 60 000 employees and more than 8 000 stores  worldwide but in 2010 as demand for DVDs declined  

the company went bankrupt and currently operates  only one store symbolically in the United States  

there are some products that we can no longer find  on sale for example we can say the old models of  

Nokia funds years ago or the first iPhone models  produced by Apple in other words these and similar  

products went into decline after a while and  left the market before any product is presented  

to the market it is first only in the form of  an idea later market research is conducted on  

that idea if it is concluded that the product  will be successful then the product is started  

to be produced and presented to the market in fact  products are like living organisms they also have  

a life cycle and each cycle has its own marketing  financial management Etc strategies there are  

some products that leave the market prematurely  for example according to statistics most of the  

products introduced to the market fail at the very  beginning and leave the market the life cycle of  

each product consists of four stages except that  some products cannot pass to the next stage and  

leave the market first stage introduction second  stage growth third stage maturity and the last  

stage decline the product life cycle approach was  proposed by Raymond fernin an American Economist  

in 1966. any product that we can think of it  is at one stage and if the manufacturer of that  

product is a professional most likely he or she  knows what stage the product is at and sets right  

strategies according to that stage but there are  some companies that don't know what the product  

life cycle is and set the wrong strategies  which ultimately leads to product failure  

now let's take a closer look at these stages at  the first stage during the product introduction  

period the product is put on sale during this  period the sales are very low because the product  

is new in the market there is a great need for  advertising to make people aware of the product  

at the same time there are not many competitors of  this product in the market usually there are no or  

negative returns but what strategies should  this company management choose first of all  

advertisements should be done on various channels  to inform the target people about the product  

collaborations with the right Partners should be  done the products should be presented to people  

as a test so that they have complete knowledge  about the product and their prejudices are removed  

when this product makes more sales it is already  passed to the next stage that is the growth stage  

in the second in the growth phase sales and  profits increase the product is already recognized  

by the customers in the market the costs related  to that product start to decrease competitors  

seeing the situation also bring cheaper similar  products to the market in the period of growth  

more different strategies should be chosen because  the product in the market as well as the situation  

of the market itself have changed during this  period the products should be distributed more  

given that new competitors enter the market  additional values or features must be added to  

the product then the target group of the product  should be expanded further in order not to lose  

the market share it is necessary not to reduce  the advertising costs but this time the values  

added to the product should be highlighted in the  advertisements so that it can remain dominant in  

this segment of the market after the growth  period the product enters the maturity period  

in the maturity stage competition in the market  reaches its peak competitors compete for market  

share weak competitors leave the market the price  of the product Falls due to high competition the  

growth rate of sales is slowing down the  maturity stage usually lasts longer than  

other stages so what strategies should be done  during this period of the product the company  

should further intensify its distribution channels  higher versions of the product or similar versions  

should be created and advertising should focus  on the new product family for example Coca-Cola  

began the production types of sugar-free caffeine  free Etc the last stage is the period of decline  

during this period sales are decreasing there is  a demand decrease for that product in the market  

revenues are falling many competitors for this  product are leaving the market many factors can  

cause a period of recession for example some  technological innovation political event change  

in customer Behavior or internal problems Etc  can cause it in this period the company should  

consider these strategies in order to come out  with less loss for example advertising costs  

should be reduced product sales prices should be  reduced to stay in the market and relationships  

with past loyal customers should be improved in  some cases companies may sell that brand to other  

companies in certain cases during the decline  phase adding new values or features to the product  

can lead to rise again but in other cases the  only way is to remove the product from the market  

for example video cassettes produced  by different companies can be cited  

let's practically look at the sales of Apple  iPods manufactured by Apple between 2006 to  

2014 according to the product life cycle as you  can see sales were low during the introduction  

phase then there was a sharp increase in sales  during the growth phase and then during the  

maturity phase the sales growth began to stabilize  and starting from 2010 sales began to decline