Just like people, products go through different life stages of life. They're born, they grow and mature, and they become old. Unlike people, though, products don't have an ‘average' lifespan. Some – like Kellogg's Corn Flakes, for example – have been going for over a century and are still going strong. Others come and go within a matter of a few years, or even months. Some, of course, are deliberately designed not to last; while others are launched in the hope that they will one day become household names – up there with iconic brands like Guinness or Levi's or the VW Beetle.

But whether destined for a long or a short existence, every stage in a product's life is critical. In this and future newsletters, we'll take you on a journey through the different stages in the cycle and look at why each stage is important. And, who knows? You might feel inspired to take a fresh look at one of your own products or perhaps even think about launching a new one.

Typically, a graph showing the stages in a product's life will look like this:

But possibly the most important stage actually takes place before launch – in the research and development (R&D) stage. It's here that market research is undertaken to identify a gap in the market and ideas are put forward for products that could fill the gap. These ideas are whittled down to the most likely candidates, which are then tested to see which ones could go forward to a prototype stage. This prototype may then be changed and improved many times before a final version is decided upon. In the case of food products this is often the stage when Sensory and Consumer panels come into play – and their comments on product attributes such as ‘mouth feel', aroma etc are fed back into the product development process.

An effective R&D stage is critical in preventing a business making costly mistakes – and perhaps even spending a lot of money setting up a production process for a product that doesn't sell. In fact, statistics suggest that for every four products that go into development only one will make it to the market. And of those that do, at least one in three will fail. So it's well worth spending time getting the product right at this ‘embryonic' stage of the lifecycle. That way, it stands a far better chance of success when it faces the stiffest test of all – persuading a customer to buy it.