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Product Life Cycle Movement

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We are developing a new product Nike running shoes that track mileage. I need to describe the pace at which my product will move through the product life cycle and the factors that will impact its movement.

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This solution assists in describing the pace at which the 'new' product will move through the product life cycle and the factors that will impact its movement.

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1. I need to describe the pace at which my product will move through the product life cycle and the factors that will impact its movement.

It is well established that products (and services) generally pass through a life cycle, ranging from birth (first introduction) through growth into maturity and eventually into decline. The life cycles of various products differ widely, e.g., from the very rapid "boom and bust" pattern of a fad (pet rocks, etc.) to the long-lasting maturity of the incandescent light bulb. These new Nike running shoes might be considered a fad initially, mainly because of the tracking mileage device. However, Nike shoes are lasting, so it probably is somewhere in the middle between the "fad" and the long-lasting maturity e.g. with a fairly short life cycle. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/results.cfm?searchstring=apparel
Factors Impacting the Movement of Product Life Cycle
This shorter life cycle is impacted through Nike using re-usable material to close the life cycle loop. For example, Nike realized that one of the achievable ways to close the loop on a product's lifecycle is to reuse it to make a new product. In the case of athletic shoes, all of the components used to make the shoes can be reused to make sports and play surfaces to help kids get active and improve their lives. So the company developed a way to take old, tired, worn-out footwear and convert them to basketball courts, tennis courts, athletic fields, and running tracks. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/8-7-2006-104787.asp
"Our goal," said Winslow, "is to take responsibility for our product through its entire life cycle." To do so, Nike has begun to "align the life cycles of all its footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories as closely as possible with natural cycles." When that goal is reached, Nike and MBDC will have identified a palette of chemicals and materials with wholly positive effects and designed systems for their perpetual retrieval and re-use. Products will then flow in discrete biological and technical cycles, nourishing the soil or circulating as high quality technical nutrients from producer to customer and back again (http://www.mcdonough.com/writings/inspiration_innovation.htm).
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