Brooks Stevens, an American industrial designer, is credited with coining the term planned obsolescence. The term was used by him while giving a talk at an advertising conference, way back in 1954, in Minneapolis. Stevens defined planned obsolescence as instilling in the buyer, a desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is desired. It means that the customer believes the product has become non-functional or obsolete in a stipulated time frame, forcing him to buy from the same producer again.
Planned obsolescence is incorporating into a product, the features that would almost certainly go out of favor in a short time, thereby causing the consumer to purchase a new or so to call an improved model of the product. Planned obsolescence means outdating your product so that customer may be triggered to dispose of the existing product and go in for repurchase of a more stylish, modern, technically better and functionally more sound product. This new version of the product will serve the same basic need, but in a better way.
Planned obsolescence is used very often as a marketing strategy by producers and marketers to stimulate, build, and sustain customer interest in their offerings. It is believed to be a mean to build and capitalize customer loyalty. Through planned obsolescence, a marketer tends to offer an advanced and improved version of his existing product by making minor or significant changes in design, size, style, format, features, packing, function, effective life, etc. It means that models of products of a company compete among themselves and the company endeavors to improve upon the existing product—technically as well as functionally so that it has something new to offer its customers at all times. |
