"New" Heat

Perceived obsolescence is a technique used by marketers in order to make you think you need their product, when in fact you do not. This definition makes it sound a little shadier than it really is, allow me to elaborate. A good example to illustrate is cell phones. As you know each year we see at least a few new cell phone deigns being released, and they often have minor and trivial “upgrades” from their predecessors. Yet people still buy them, even if their last phone still works fine. This is a textbook case of perceived obsolesce. Now we are all guilty or committing a purchase for no other reason than perceived obsolescence at one time or another, I myself have four very fresh pairs of basketball shoes at home – one for each season over the past four years – that only had one thing wrong with them that made me think I needed to replace them: they were last seasons shoes. Why is this is such an effective marketing technique? Well that sound easy right: because people want to be cool and, if the marketing company does there job right, that is exactly what they make you think you will be if you have their product and vice-versa. But let me put forth a question you may not have asked yourself before: why do people want to be cool? It seems like a question that needs no answer, however it is one we must if we want to understand why it is so seemingly easy for marketers to make use believe we need their product when we have a perfectly good one at home. It is the human need to be loved and accepted, cliché I know but none the less true, and what is being cool if not being loved and accepted by everyone. Yes, advertisers are praying upon our want and need for love, picking apart our self-esteem so we will buy their product. We as a society are being bullied by ourselves and don’t even realize it, while they profit form our tortured self-perpetuating state. It seems like an unfixable problem, one that stems form the very core of human nature and is reinforced by our society to a degree that only a massive change in thinking by all would even begin to correct. If you have ever had an in-depth philosophical conversation about the world’s problems you know they can all be fixed on paper, but not without change human nature. However you can win little battles, if you remember to say to yourself: “do I really need this?” and every once and a while you may just listen. Making a little difference is always enough, because without it there can never be any change.