Is planned obsolescence good for companies?
Planned obsolescence is a business strategy where products are intentionally designed with a limited, artificial lifespan or to become unfashionable, forcing consumers to replace them sooner.
While companies may benefit from it through revenue and consumer consumption, it causes waste and may frustrate consumers who love trends. For planned obsolescence to be effective, companies should consider their target audience. The youth love trends and may likely patronize new products, but the older people rarely consider trends and they don't shop often. So planned obsolescence works best when companies know their consumer.
Is planned obsolescence good?
Planned obsolescence is good, but if the lifespan for their products are too short or too long, it impacts the consumers negatively. People may become tired of changing products after a short time and would likely switch to another if the product stays out too long.
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Imagine 2 million of certain T-shirts are printed and only 1 million of those T-shirts are sold before another trend is out. The 1 million T-shirts remaining may likely not be sold leading to waste, but on the other hand, they gain revenue and have higher demand for the new products.
How long should a product remain fashionable?
For me, 2-3 years is okay. It would give middlemen enough time to sell their products and also help increase the desire for a new product. But this depends on their consumers. Youth and the aged varies when it comes to taste, and a product lifespan can be flexible based on their target audience.
Finally, companies should practice planned obsolescence. Consuming one product runs out of fashion even for the consumers. People desire change but such change should come with certain considerations like their target audience, competitors, and demand. It helps keep a company relevant for long as long as its product meets the consumers' needs.
Well said. We youths love trends especially if the trends are something that are popular. The taste of a youth can be different from the aged people. And just like you said planned obsolescence is good but changing them after 6 months can make people tired and stop patronizing, before changing anything we must make sure that everything we have is sold our and wait just like you said 2-3 years before we launch another products. Nice write-up
Yeah, that's true. Youth and the aged are two distinct people and need to be considered while making decisions
Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. I wish some things weren't programmed, like my cell phone battery... ugh.
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Hahaha. You're right. Everyone wants a battery that last forever
Bueno eso es una generalización que depende también del bolsillo, yo soy de mediana edad, y cuando era joven no me gustaba tener que cambiar de celular o de equipo a cada rato, si cambiaba de celular era porque me lo robaban o porque lo perdía. En solo dos ocasiones fue por que se daño. El punto es que uno siempre tiene el poder adquisitivo o el interes en aprenderse el funcionamiento de un nuevo equipo que va estar obsoleto en tiempos cada vez más cortos. La eterna novedad, y de paso una novedad superficial con cientos de funciones que uno no va a llegar a conocer ni explorar (de hecho hay estudios de que los usuarios apenas usan 10% o menos de los software que traen las computadoras y celulares) al final genera un enorme cansancio. Yo soy más partidario de reparar las piezas dañadas y actualizar cuando haya fallas de programación, pero no de estar en esa búsqueda permanente de actualizaciones innecesarias, porque es desgastante.
You're right. Myself too like to have a device that is fashionable for a long time. The constant upgrade may not be suitable for many.
But this desire for upgrade subjective
This is such a great point. But the down side of that is that trends can change in a couple of months, and that's one of the problems we have right now with fast fashion, like Zara that has around 15,000 new designs each year, and with ultra fast fashion, like Shein that has around 5,000 new designs daily. Which produce a lot of waste since not all is sold, and on the other hand, people throw away their clothes because they are not trending any more, or because the quality of the fabric is not that good and it is easily damaged.