Longevity dates. How Long Will It Last?
How Long Will It Last? Product duration dates fail to acknowledge the last 100 years of marketing.
We need a measure with a consumer experience at the end.
The ROI of Ends: Turning ESG into Consumer Connection
Companies are investing heavily in sustainability, often driven by compliance with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. Publicly listed businesses spend between $220,000 and $480,000 annually on sustainability ratings1. Yet, despite this investment, many fail to communicate these efforts effectively to consumers, relying on symbols and data points that are poorly understood.
Leaving? Had enough of my personal brands opinion?
It’s not the first time a stupid statement has dissolved a business. And I am sure won’t be the last.
When consumer opinion is confronted with terrible behaviour, their loyalty can shift in a heartbeat. It is a unique kind of challenge: the Cultural Ending. This occurs when consumers’ cultural values, opinions, or tastes no longer align with the brand or product experience. Unlike traditional business challenges, cultural endings are nuanced and unpredictable, making them one of the most complicated and difficult types of endings to design and mitigate.
Trapped in a Holiday: A Cautionary Tale of Bad Endings
Embarking on a new relationship with a brand or product should ideally be an exciting venture, filled with potential and promise. However, what happens when the whispers you hear about these products are laden with tales of regret and entrapment?
Extended Producer Responsibility: A Consumer-Centric Approach
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is gaining momentum, aiming to shift the burden of waste management from society and the environment back to producers. As this movement gains traction, it's crucial to consider how consumers will experience and engage with EPR initiatives. While many businesses focus on the material outcomes of EPR, such as reducing plastic waste, few are examining how these changes will impact their customers' experiences. Let's explore the various dimensions through which consumers will interact with EPR.
Can traceable plastic help avoid consumer shame?
A large part of the problem of any polluting material is ‘Who done it?’. This is nearly impossible when the fallout of plastic waste drifts around the world, not only in poorly managed waste logistics, but also as microscopic particles too small to see. Can tracing these materials help the consumer experience of shame?
Ending AI theft.
In terms of endings, theft is a really frustrating and disturbing version. Beyond the material theft of a product, like a bike or a phone, the theft of a personal or artistic endeavour is particularly disturbing. It is a common experience for artists across history, who have had to grapple with individuals copying their work, to businesses profiting from it. And once it happens, it is impossible to undo it. Any technical leap forward has to be grappled with legally, artistically, and emotionally. What should artist do with AI?
AI endings? Surprisingly, maybe.
AI is everywhere. Being sold as the greatest human achievement. How might it do at doing endings and the complexities of off-boarding.
This week Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, presented the latest updates to Google’s Gemini AI. Within the celebratory examples of its achievements was a scenario of returning some recently purchased sneakers to a store.
Has your product ‘jumped the shark’?
Product leaders are easily persuaded that their product is the best. I worked in a big corporate company for a few years. They kept polishing the old operating system their past products had relied upon. Despite it never matching new competitor products entering the market. They just couldn’t end its life.
Drones. The quickest product endings?
Walking through my building, and seeing a brand new drone box with a broken drone inside made me think about the consumer experience of these products. Broken quick enough to put it straight back in the packaging you only just unwrapped it from. Is it the quickest ending for a product?
The 5rs, and why altruism is no match for marketing.
Don’t get me wrong, we need to do everything we can. Action like the 5rs is great. I am a big fan. Its no match for mass consumption and convenient disposal. It won’t solve the crisis we are in. For that we need new approaches.