Durable Use of Consumer Products

Do we need a new car or a new refrigerator every ten years? What happens to our PC which is exchanged for a new model every three years? Why do our shoes last only a year or so, while those of our great grandfather served for a genera- tion? Are businesses deliberately marketing products in a way which encourages sub-optimal use and induces consumers to buy new products? More and more consumers respond ''yes'' objecting to the business practices which reduce the life span of a product or pay no attention to efficiency in con- sumption. The growing concem with sub-optimal use of consumer durables arises as a response to the volume of waste, as wen as to the growing conviction that over-consumption is encouraged by marketing techniques and approaches that favor lesser durability and sub-optimal use. There are signs that those things will have to change. Firstly, client orientation - a condition sine qua non of marketing success in the saturated markets of rich countries - is gaining popularity. Consumers are better informed and more influential and "e;intelligent consumption"e; is on the rise. Buyers are becoming more and more hostile towards marketing manipulation, inducing them to consume faster, more and at higher prices. The public increas- ingly resists messages in advertisements (preventive resistance) which are pre- dominantly persuasive (rather than educational or informative) and conceived to stimulate demand for the "e;new"e;, the superficial and the fashionable.