Companies and corporations have recently shown a preference for marketing their products as new in one way or another. While this marketing strategy might bring more attention to their products, thereby making them more popular, overall this development is doing more harm than good.
Though it is undeniable that focusing on adding new features and improving products helps speed up the growth of many fields, new companies need new products with different features than those already widely available to compete with the corporations that already have an established place in the industry. Hence, quality-of-life improvements and newly added features make their products stand out in the already crowded marketplace. This results in a never-ending loop of innovation and releasing new products to keep up with the ever-changing environment and consumers, speeding up the development in the respective areas.
On the other hand, with the constantly renewing and evolving marketplace, society will be affected negatively. The speed of development has reached an emergency level of rapidity, causing consumers to constantly buy new products regardless of price and financial situations just to update their social status. With the popularization of consumerism, the products we possess no longer serve as just tools for daily usage but also as status symbols, therefore attracting more and more buyers. This leads to a significant portion of society nowadays reflecting their value through the products they own. The movie “American Psycho” demonstrated a worrisome dystopian future of society when consumerism takes over and emotions and affection fade away, leaving greed and envy behind.
The marketing strategy emphasizing the newness and uniqueness of the products that businesses are using is negatively affecting all of us. While it does contribute to the rapid growth of the product’s respective field, the way it is turning products into status symbols rather than daily tools is harming human society. New products should be treated as actual improvements instead of trends; hence, corporations and companies should take time to work on them.