Once a consumer buys your product, what incentive do they have to keep purchasing from you? Especially if the product is well-made and doesn’t break or malfunction easily. Plenty of incredible business ideas have slipped through the cracks for these very reasons. Businesses have gone bankrupt before they can even develop a strong customer base. The issue isn’t the quality of the product. It’s the lack of ongoing demand.
What is planned obsolescence?
The idea of creating a product with intentions of releasing new and improved versions down the line is a useful business strategy. In the business realm, planned obsolescence means your product is constantly being updated with a new and improved version to help create ongoing demand.
One of the most obvious examples for this is Apple. Apple releases a new iPhone every few years. The new version is always slightly better — faster hardware, new features, improved camera capabilities, and more. So Apple consumers are always looking to buy the latest Apple product. This method locks in one-time buyers and turns them into regular buyers, especially if you’re offering them high-quality services. It also serves to keep the product relevant and protect it from being pushed into obscurity by competing brands.
Keep your product popular with planned obsolescence.
These days, new advancements in technology are happening constantly. As soon as a new app is developed, a better, faster, more user-friendly app is put on the market the very next day. Although planned obsolescence is a great business strategy for a product’s longevity, it’s also a huge investment.
Think about it – even a company like Apple has to pay their programmers and engineers to continue to develop and improve their products.
Does your marketing strategy include planned obsolescence?
When you’re using planned obsolescence as a business strategy, your product is sure to keep up with the latest technologies because the product is being updated periodically.
Hiring an engineer or programmer to constantly improve the product and the brand is an expensive venture. With how science and technology are rapidly advancing, professionals in these fields are in incredibly high demand. So hire sooner rather than later and do your research.
Planned obsolescence is a huge investment to make. But it will be well worth it for all of the lifelong customers you’ll gain.
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