The impact of product upgrade on replacement demand

Ever wondered why we want to change our mobile phones every now and then (okies...every 2 years or so..now and then is more for Yo Man kind of ppl)...but are content seeing the same damn fan rotating above over our sweating bodies year after year or rather decades after decades. If u think its more to do with a lifestyle product vs a utility product, lets take another example...why do most of us have changed our old A/C's with new upgraded/energy saving ones in the last year or so...where does the lifestyle thing come into play...or even better why have so many of ours mom insisted on changing our old refrigerators with newer ones in the last couple of years or so...but with the fans they dont do anything....akhir kyon...why this love with the hanging piece of machinery....after all all of them are high value (for a average Indian Middle Class family), high involvement household related consumer electronics items...?? This question struck me of late when I noticed that some items just dont have a replacement demand...and this thing gains all the more importance when we look at some of the penetration data in the Indian households and find more and more houses having access to many erstwhile so called luxury/comfort items....a high penetration simply means low potential for growing the market which in turn means that for growing the market what is needed is to create replacement market.... This observation made to sit back and realise why does Television market grow but radio doesnt, why does A/c market grow but Fans doesnt, why does ligting bulb market grow but tube light doesnt..the answer which I could think of (though as quite often, I might be totally wrong), is that some product categories have created higher versions or product upgrade making the consumers believe that while they might be having something, its a piece of shit compared to what is available now...they have created a replacement market and has made the consumer upgrade itself despite the fact that the consumer was till the realisation struck him, was pretty happy with this piece of gadget.... Lets take the example of a Television....a simple colour tv, then a 30-40 channel one, then a flat screen, then with better sound etc etc....after every couple of years u feel that u need a new one...not because the existing one is bad but that because the ones currently in the market are much better...On the other hand, lets look at fans, etc....a fan ages ago was the same fan available now...why should any consumer shift..whats the benefit... Skeptics can say that a fan suffices the need of cooling ur body but the same holds true for A/c's too...why does a replacement market exist there..simply cause the marketers of the latter have consisitently come out with better versions of the A/c tempting people to upgrade. Hence, while we might not have the data to prove, but examples do exist in real life to show that despite a product having a high technical life, product upgrade by the marketeers definitely helps in getting consumers to go for the better variants thus creating a replacement demand which in turn boosts sale....

Awesome females....

Shake ur Bon Bon- Shakira: The way she shakes it...God!!!...Does she at all have bones out there... on her butt n hips...Its awesome, the way she does it..I have seen so many dancers shake their hips but the way Shakira does it ...its simply out of the world....n the best part is its so sensual and sexy....not vulgar at all...Anyday, u wuld be more comfy watching her than watching one of the failed attempts at sensuality by an Indian remix..Shakira is just too much..... Those Lips and Pout- Angelina Jolie: Angelina Jolie...once one of my friends was watching her in one of the clips n remarked ..."God!!! She is visual viagra" n I think that was as close as u can get to a befitting descreption of the lady who has send millions of libidos soaring across the world (I dont believe in life beyong Planet Earth)..Her lips n those pout r like just beyond descrption n the attitude with which she carries them...Awesome...simply mind blowing..... Ms Perfect- PR: I wont go into the name of who the lady is... Its just that its been my great fortune to have known her, albiet unfortunately for a very short period of time and trust me she was as close to perfection as anyone can get...No flashy stuff .....nothing in particular but how often do u come across someone who seems equally at ease in a disc and at the same time equally comfortable putting her duppata over her head while meeting someone elder...I can go on n on but theres no need...This lady was just too good...just apt to be called Ms. Perfect... Actually there are lots more females about which i wanna write but then since i have named the piece Awesome females...dont wanna include aweful females in it...

The choices we get....

Good Vs Bad…if its like that, no issues but what do u do when u have to decide between Bad Vs Very Bad or Bad Vs Worse….either case will involve pain, either case will involve heart-ache, either case will cause tears but then a choice has to be made. U want to escape, u want to run away from reality but then it haunts u, escapism hurts, it makes u scared, it makes u feel guilty and then u stand up, muster enough courage and face it. U pray for strength, u pray for the power to carry it through but then u wanna melt, u melt when u see the repercussions. And the folly of life is that the repercussions are not restricted to you alone….the ripples are felt across people…n the worst part is that when u cant explain the other person why you are doing what you are doing..u just sit back with a deep sense of void and nothingness…Its that phase when u r too numb to feel any pain, any sorrow, any tears…anything….u are just too numb for anything… The worst part is that very often we reconcile with our own situations in life…how good or bad it be but there is nothing we can do to ameliorate the feelings others have for us. At times, we wish that there was no one who would be affected by us but at the end of the day the fact remains that its these very people: for whom we care and more importantly who care for us that make life worth living…Imagine what would it be, if life were a mere series of cold blooded contracts…contract no so n so governing your birth …blah blah….it would be worse than your worst nightmares….

Life or something like it....

Long back when in school, i had read these lines from some poem... "...A pint of joy to a peck of trouble... And never a joy but the pains come double... ...... And that is life" (aint sure if the lines are accurate) These are beutiful lines...might not be very encouraging but very true..Life doesnt remain calm for long...u think things are smooth but then some fuck-up happens...U think u got everything but suddenly something happens and you start asking for something more and then suddenly it gains importance over everything else and no sooner ur desire transforms into a craving, u see it gone...simply vanish...Period...U sit back and think, why did u want it in the first place...but then u just think...n thinking aint an exercise in pain amelioration.... The worst part in life is there is nothing like a Cntrl Z...Once u have done it...once u have lost it...u have lost it...u cant go back in time and undo/do some of the things u would have liked to..U really dont have the option of finding out what all things would matter to you and then start working towards it from right now...its so damn sporadic man...n then add to that the stupid things we do...n we know why there is so often the feeling of "damn...i am fucked"... If life wasnt a bitch enough, add to that things like facades, diplomacy..etc etc that screws up our life all the more. There are so many things we want to do...so many things we want to say but then we cant do it...cause its not correct....cause its not the right thing to do..cause its not done....God!!! Missing is a part of life...once in a typical consulting types discussion, I had generally remarked that happiness is nothing but a point of equilibrium between expectations and reality...Today, when i look back at it...i realise that despite the fact that I had said it very casually, it is so true...I mean how peaceful life would be, if we didnt want any thing...no love....no expectations....no hope nothing....I mean it would be so chillled...but then it aint so....U want some people...and then as always happens with life...these are not jsut any people...these are some specific people...some names...some special ones u want n they are jsut not replacable...they come...they touch us...n they go...n u sit there...gaze out towards nothingness and wish..how things would be different ... Hey....what all shit i have written on a saturday afternoon....Bizzare!!!!