Planned Obsolescence

Planned Obsolescence

I remember it almost as if it were a joke, my grandfather complaining about a car repair that became necessary magically just after the warranty expired. As soon as he explained how much this inconvenient timing was going to cost him, expletives aside, it was clearly not funny. He felt that it was an evil plan hatched by the automaker before the car was even purchased. This was the first I had heard of “planned obsolescence,” which was apparently a timer secretly built in by the manufacturer that went off at either the warranty-covered miles or years, whichever came first.

Sinister or not for my grandfather, there is precedence.

If you've replaced a computer lately — or a cell phone, your AirPods, a camera, or a television — chances are, the old one still worked. And chances are even greater that the latest model won't last as long as the one it replaced. Welcome to the world of planned obsolescence first documented in 1924 when a group of light bulb manufacturers known as the Phoebus Cartel got together to plan a way to increase sales. The group agreed to artificially limit the lifespan of their products from the average at that time of about 2,500 hours to about 1,000 hours. It’s a neat trick if you can get away with it, right?

The strategy means that not only do technological gadgets stop working after a certain time, but they are also considered obsolete when a better version is produced, or they simply become unfashionable. The dark side of this churn cycle is that we have no option but to continuously replace certain products, generating immense quantities of waste — the alternative to this problem is a more circular economy, reusing, repairing, and recycling existing materials and products whenever possible to extend their life cycle. Of course, we see it every day with the “fashion-forward” churn-and-burn in promotional products, leaving consumers dissatisfied with the low quality driven by the quest for lower cost, and landfills choking to nearly full by the minute.

Repsol, a Spanish multinational company focused on renewable fuels, suggests there are actually seven types of obsolescence. These are:

Planned obsolescence: The useful life of a product is planned so that it stops working after a certain number of uses.

Indirect obsolescence: The damaged product doesn't have spare parts to repair it, so it's unusable.

Functional obsolescence: This occurs when a component fails, and the whole device stops working.

Incompatibility obsolescence: In IT services, updates stop being released for the proper functioning of the product, and it becomes obsolete.

Psychological obsolescence: New models of the same category appear, so the product becomes "old-fashioned."

Aesthetic obsolescence: When a product in good condition is replaced by another more modern one or with a more attractive design.

Obsolescence by expiration: The life of a product is artificially reduced because of its preferrable expiration or end-of-life cycle.

Back to another light bulb example —this time it’s the one that has been shining for more than 100 years maintained by the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Station in California. Perceived obsolescence is based on the idea that if all the light bulbs that we buy last over 100 years, manufacturers would have no buyers, and the industry would go bankrupt without any light bulbs available to meet new needs. So, selling light bulbs with a planned useful life means that more bulbs must be purchased while maintaining a viable supply-demand trade-off. Explained that way, it seems less sinister.

But really, in our industry, what is wrong with selling your client something now, and with a pre-determined timeframe for selling another one when the first one reaches end-of-life? Perhaps you have seen some of your competitors’ marketing initiatives like frequent design changes, a very limited run of items so as to sell a substitution, or the use of easily breakable materials. Clients are consumers, too, and consumer marketing or societal values that tell us we should always have the newest, biggest, or best of a product affects them as a buyer, too.

So, what’s the best way to help your clients, and the planet, too? That’s an easy one: sell good stuff. Source new goods that are durable, repairable, sustainably sourced, and ethically produced. Move away from the "race to the bottom" on pricing. Sell fewer items but make more money per item because the user experience includes high quality and longer usable life. Finally, do what you know is right, anyway — the strongest relationships are built on quality, transparency, and service.

Your best customer relationships will become like your product choices, built to last.