Planned Obsolescence Is Not How to Keep Customers Purchasing #4
Description
Planned obsolescence brings the purchaser to a purchase decision tree too often, and will often send them searching for alternatives.
Observed behavior
Too many things are built with a disposable mentality. They are designed to fail, and usually right after the warranty window expires.
Why this is a problem
Brands require trust from the customers. If they don't trust the brand, they don't buy from the company. It's a simple as that. When a product fails just after the warranty expires, or fails to deliver the expected lifespan, the customer loses trust in the company. Do this repeatedly and the customer is upset, tells all their friends, maybe makes a video online that discourages hundreds more.
Constraints / tradeoffs
Businesses are in business to make money, but it's at the cost of making the consumer feel like an overworked milk cow
What success might look like
Products designed to last, designed to evolve with ever-changing life. Businesses like to talk about going green, but the only green they care about is cash money. Making a product that lasts for a long time creates a strong consumer base. Look at Craftsman tools. They made products that were passed down to a new generation, then they got cheap and turned on all their customers and lost everything. Now people trust Harbor Freight tools more.
Non-goals
- This is not a feature request
- This is not a proposal for implementation