My smartphone is 10 years old. My car is 15. The pair of denims I am wearing is 15-plus years young. I have absolutely no desire to replace any of them all too soon. They are well maintained. Yes, they don’t look very new, but each performs to an extent. The important point is that I don’t want to replace things that are performing well enough. I can stretch the life of what I use. Why clutter Earth?
It’s good and positive idealism, one would say. But there are challenges. Many issues as you and I grapple to extend the lives of what we use and wear every single day. Many of these are items that gobble up big, one-time expenditures. Let me explore some of these challenges.
For a start, my phone is performing less and less. Every three years, it has gotten slower than before. Software updates from the manufacturer have stopped. Many apps just don’t work. The battery needs to be charged more frequently. But when it comes to basic calling, all is good. When I bought this model, it was the latest. It cost the world. Today, it is possibly among the oldest running ones and has no monetary value.
A whole world of consumers have been enticed to upgrade with every passing new model launched. Every new model has of course added exciting bells and whistles. Every new model is more expensive than the last. Data from the developed markets of the world indicate smartphone replacement cycles to be all of 21 months today.
Mobiles in the old days had two distinct parts. One was the device, and the other was the replaceable and rechargeable battery. When one battery expended its life, you could replace the same with a new one, and at least in terms of power, the phone was as good as new. As the days passed, manufacturers decided to merge the two together.
Today, most models come without a battery you can remove. The device and battery are fused into one. If the battery performs less, your phone performs less as well. And that is a potent nudge to replace your phone, never mind how good the device and its software update status is. To an extent, this merging of battery and device into a ‘unibody’ is a way of getting you and I to replace earlier than before.
Today, mobile phone manufacturers clearly tell you (in the fine print leaflets that accompany your phone) that Android updates up to two years are guaranteed and security patches up to three. After that, you and your phone live in limbo. Add to it the fact that batteries seem to perform less and less, despite a vigorous degree of improvement in the science of enhancement of battery life.
Somehow, in a rather obvious manner, there seems to be a movement among marketers of mobile phones to add a rather quiet quotient of a terminator gene into what they market. It is as if the marketer is telling you to replace your device every three years. If not, you suffer quietly, till the inefficiency of your phone will make you upgrade.
The yen to upgrade has bitten consumer society in a big way today. We do this in the realm of items of cosmetic value such as garments, and equally in items of utility value such as cars, refrigerators, washing machines and mobile phones. The buzz phrases of ‘mindful consumption’, the ‘circular economy’ and ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ remain largely niche movements in the minds of niche consumers.
The horse of consumerism has bolted long ago, and the new reality of the day seems to be the clutter of products and brands that want to make you replace faster than ever before. The mountains of e-waste and equal mountains of rags that emanate from old and discarded garments are the new reality to battle.
As we stand at the important point of time when we change full generations of people (on December 31, 2025 the Alpha generation will be complete and establish itself to be the single largest living generation), I believe it is time for the young to take charge of everything older people like I have sullied.
The Alpha generation has possibly the biggest responsibility to reverse all that is hurting the earth. The right to repair movement, the right to reuse movement and indeed myriad such movements in every sphere of commercial activity is the opportunity ahead. I do believe the Alpha generation will grab this and make the world a better place to live in for the generations that will follow.
In terms of consumer movements ahead, I believe it is now time for consumers to sit up and demand a kind of right to information in marketing. The consumer is a very important element in the marketing process. There are only two kinds of people. One is a ‘marketing’ person and the other is a ‘marketed-to’ person. The latter is much larger than the former.
Marketers need to stay responsible to the large mass of ‘marketed-to’ people and the marketed-to person needs to appropriate for himself the right to ask. An RTI in the marketing process would give the right to every consumer to ask the right questions and get the correct answers. Not the politically correct answers, but the correct ones.
While my 15-year old car is a threatened species (thanks to government policy as well), and might just be asked to go with the logic of it being a more polluting vehicle than more recent engines, the mobile phone category is one that needs to sit up and smell the unarticulated disgruntlement of the earth and its people. Marketing must and can never swim against consumer sentiment. If the consumer asks, he will get. The consumer needs to sit up and ask. The regulators in the space of telecom might want to help as well.
So, phone software updates must not dry up as early as they do. Today, such updates are needed for e-bikes and e-cars. This will spread to more and more categories—and that is the point of worry.
The choice to use and extend the life of what you use should be yours, not that of the manufacturer and brand. Your phone must not crash on you to make you replace it. Your e-car must not do the same. Not your e-bike as well. You and I must not be at the mercy of the marketer. It should be the other way round. Right?
(Views are personal)
(harishbijoor@hotmail.com)
Harish Bijoor | Brand Guru & Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults