MarketTrip: Perpetual Product Optimism

I have a 2 year old iPod. I have a 6 month old Motorola Razr. I have a 27 inch flat screen CRTV. All work flawlessly, look good, totally fit my lifestyle and are paid for. And yet I want to replace all three.

As such, I habitually read the Sunday circulars from Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA...grabbing them first as I sip my coffee. As a new dad with precious little "me time," I know that this is unwise. I should spend my quiet time with World News, Living/Arts, Ideas or even the Magazine...but I don't, I can't.

Frustrated, a bit ashamed and eager for an answer that indemnified me of my own behavior, I came up with the following:

Humans are, I believe, more optimistic than pessimistic, which makes us really truly want to believe that this product is exponentially better than that product. Combine that mindset with mankind's innate belief in compounding betterment and you've got what I call "perpetual product optimism" (d. unending assumption that newer gadget = better gadget). It's "assumed obsolescence" and it's the yang to the yin of "planned obsolescence"...the human nature flip side to corporate retail strategy (and it's the 93 octane that fuels our economy).

It's what causes me (and my brethren*) to incessantly read the Sunday circulars, wander around Best Buy for hours and plot our next technology purchase over the course of many, many months.

So, using the classic "it's human nature" argument, mission accomplished. I'd successfully applied this new consumer psychological concept - perpetual product optimism - to my life and simultaneously a) eradicated my feelings of guilt associated with coveting gadgets I know I don't need and b) excused my newspaper reading habits.

And in doing so, I've aptly demonstrated another impressive aspect of human nature - the power of rationalization!

* men aren't alone, women demonstrate similar behavior with handbags and shoes.

POSTSCRIPT:

Thinking about this a bit more...

From a marketing perspective, that this mindset exists in the modern marketplace should come as no surprise. And yet desire based on PPO is something that any marketer would be hard-pressed to manufacture for a given product. Consumer desire is elusive…and you can’t force people to want something.

In fact, there’s ample (although not conclusive) evidence of an inverse relationship between corporate hype and consumer interest. Palm’s Folio is one of the most recent examples. Classically hyped technology offerings that failed to captivate consumers include WebTV, the DiVX movie rental service, Apple’s Newton, email appliances, Iridium…etc.

So what then? How can marketers leverage PPO? How can they position their product as the antidote to consumers “assumed obsolescence?” Most likely they can’t. “This is better than that” arguments don’t really gain much traction in the marketplace these days…consumers have learned to mistrust corporate lines when it comes to technology.

Really, the best approach seems to be to ignore (or avoid addressing directly) the competition or even your prior products and to make your play either on an emotional level (like Apple with iPod) or on straight features/benefits (like Blackberry). With fickle, web-savvy consumers, you really have to hope your product development team got it right and hope that consumers assign the kind of value to what you’re selling that will make your launch a success!