Product obsolescence is one of the harsh truths of marketing. Just like saying “boom splat,” your product’s sales growth will eventually drop, margins will tighten, and customers will fade away. It happens. Innovation will always meet new demands or even create them. If you know a storm is coming, you’re likely to get ready for it. If you run a brand, obsolescence is your storm. Fortunately, if it catches you off guard, there are still steps you can take to lessen its effects. There are also ways to turn obsolescence into an opportunity, as it can push you to look at aspects you might have missed. Here are seven strategies to tackle obsolescence right now.
1. Before obsolescence starts to show its negative side, the clear solution is to become a visionary. And learn to soar while you’re at it. Visionaries are those who can, in a metaphorical sense, foresee the number and type of chess moves needed to win a game. Few of us can achieve that level of confidence necessary for the big financial decisions that market forecasts demand. Still, there are many information sources you can explore for hints about the future. The key is to distinguish the reliable from the nonsense. Naturally, there are several industry sources you can keep track of. But to get ahead of the competition, consider resources like McKinsey & Company’s Insights or check out trendwatching.com for broader trends that could impact you down the line. Make a dedicated effort to stay informed with these and other trend predictors.
2. Before you surrender to obsolescence, keep in mind that you manage two things: your product and your brand. Both are very different. Keep them that way. Don’t do what Xerox did by having its brand become equated to copiers, its main product. That is one of the reasons why Xerox was never able to break into the PC market. Make sure your brand stands for something bigger than your product, a belief or value that prospects can identify and associate with. If you haven’t done that yet, do it now. You’ll find that if you plan to stay in business, doing this is critical when and if you begin to offer new products. Just make sure that any new products can serve as manifestations of those beliefs and values.
3. Don’t go down the discounting dark hole unless you absolutely have to. But if you do, just know it is highly likely you’ll never come back out.
4. Product extensions can make a great deal of logical sense. Just make sure they make emotional sense to the consumer. KFC has a long legacy of being associated with fried chicken. As more people starting cutting back on fried foods, KFC introduced KGC, Kentucky Grilled Chicken. On the surface it appeared to be a smart move. But it was just too hard for the “eat better” crowd to include a brand like KFC in their consideration set. There was just too much baggage in the way.
5. Don’t walk away from your legacy. Even if you try, you can’t. Instead, celebrate it. Overtime, your brand has come to stand for something important, otherwise it wouldn’t have gotten as far as it did. It’s quite possible that the value or belief most associated with your brand is still important. It might just need to be contemporized. Old Spice is about as old as any brand gets. But Old Spice was reawakened with a new, more modern, hipper spin to their longstanding association with masculinity. Another example of celebrating an existing belief can be seen in the way Chrysler gave itself a boost. It did this through an association with the grit and the “never say die” attitude of Detroit. Chrysler didn’t invent this belief. It was merely awakened from its DNA. And consumers have seen it as an easy-to-accept extension of what the Chrysler brand is all about.
6. Perhaps you product isn’t obsolescing. It could just be your brand. Bar soap isn’t going away anytime soon (or at least I hope not!). Yet, with so many new category entries, what was a brand like Dove to do? Dove differentiated itself by associating with a unique belief that resonated with many women. It’s the belief that too much attention is paid to outer beauty while making “inner beauty” take a back seat. With this idea, Dove sent obsolescence to the showers.
7. Last, but first in importance, is to fix a glaring weakness. If you know one exists, fix that first before trying to reposition your brand. If customers are telling you that your restaurants are dirty and their people are unfriendly, a new product offering isn’t going to turn things around. Even the best marketing will not overcome operational weakness. McDonalds’ discovered this a while back after seeing that new product news was doing very little to regenerate interest in their brand. “We love to make you smile” just wasn’t true. It was only after fixing things behind the counter that the brand began to take off again.
These are just a few things that you can do to circumnavigate obsolesce before and while it is occurring. In any case, it’s important to know that obsolescence is a reality, not a myth. There are things you can do to offset it, but obsolescence will never become obsolete.
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