Craft Inc.'s Krayons is a multi-color chalk material that was released in the market over a century ago. Since the release, the company has had remarkable sales and Krayons has remained unchanged. However, over the last few years, sales of Krayons have been stagnant. Competitors have begun marking prices down, and increasing their advertising and sales promotions. Craft's Krayons is most likely in the ________ stage of the product life cycle.

introduction: the new product is released in the market (it is born), sales are slow and advertisement costs are high.
growth: sales volume increases, customers know about the product, and competing firms are starting to launch their own versions of the product.
maturity: sales growth stops, which means that total sales reached a zenith, companies fight to keep their share of the market and generally launch different versions of the product to keep customers interested.
decline: sales volume starts to decrease as the product becomes obsolete. Finally the product will stop being produced (the product dies).