The five stages in the product life cycle are product development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.
- Introduction. This is a stage when the product is typically being produced for local consumption and possibly exported
- Growth. In this stage, copies of the product are often manufactured in another country and you start to get competition based on price.
- Maturity. In this stage, price pressures get very strong and the good is almost never manufactured in the original country anymore. It is now manufactured only in low-cost locations.
- Saturation. At this stage, there is really no more growing that can be done. The manufacturer has to start trying to come up with new ways to use the product to increase demand for it.
- Decline. At this point, companies start to abandon the product and there is not much market for it at all.