Consumers Love New, Even When It’s Old

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Why New Ideas Are Usually Just Old Ones That Have Been Refreshed

One of my university tutors was a really savvy old guy who had worked in some of the more established shops in London. And throughout each gig, he said one thing remained constant - consumers are suckers for something different, but not necessarily new.

A little cryptic? Let me explain.

For centuries, bread was bread. It came in loaves, you cut it into slices, and that was that. But then, in 1930, Wonder Bread began selling something amazing - sliced bread. (History books do say that Otto Rohwedder is the true inventor, but Wonder Bread¹ brought it to the masses).

Of course, when anything makes life easier and saves time, there's an associated cost. And sliced bread cost more than regular bread, due to the additional steps involved in making it.

However, after decades of eating this rather homogenized, bland bread that just happened to come in handy slices, the consumer wanted something else. They wanted something more like mom used to make. Hey, no problem. We'll give you freshly based bread at the grocery store, not this pre-sliced stuff. I even remember ads for this, and the headline was killer:

THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD

Guess what? People went nuts for it. And once again, the price was hiked, because it costs more to bake fresh bread on the premises than it does to buy sliced bread in bulk.

In the span of 40 years, we'd gone from boring loaves to bland sliced bread to boring loaves again. And we were now paying more than ever for the product.

The same is true of so many other products.

Remember shaving with a safety razor?² I don't. But I do remember seeing my dad hack away at his face with one. Then the double, triple, quadruple and quintuple razors came out. They gave you a shave so close, you were almost removing a layer of skin. But the price, oh the price. Then, there was a backlash. Men were sick of paying a bunch for a plastic, fake shave. They wanted one like the old barber used to give. A genuine, real shave with a solid safety razor and foam applied with a badger-hair brush. I now shave this way, and it's hard to say if it's better than the multiple blade razors³…but it sure feels different, looks different and is cheaper.

Want More Examples Of Old Vs. New?

Portable electronics increased in size in the 80s, with music players weighing 50lbs and being carried on your shoulder. It went small again, with tiny walkmans. Then it got even smaller with the iPod, then the Nano and the Shuffle.

But now, it's going big with iPads that are the size of a large book playing music, video and more. How long until we have an extra large iPad. Then a 5" iPad because big is bulky? Small is better. No, big is. No, small. No, big. Wait, what?

How about soda? Sugar was in. Then it was out, and high fructose corn syrup was in. Sugar was a dirty word, uttered only in secret. Now, sugar is in and everything is going "throwback." We want our real sugar! Yes, the sugar we hated 20 years ago!

Jeans were blue. Then light blue. Then acid washed. Then ripped to shreds. Then black. Then any color but black or blue. Now, regular old blue is fine again.

The Bottom Line Is This: Fresh Sells.

It's the reason packaging changes from year to year. It's why cars come out with new models year after year. Sometimes, the new cars seem like they're not as good as the older ones. And that's true. Often, change is made for the sake of it, because as consumers, we just want a refresh.

If you have a blue screensaver, an orange one is instantly refreshing. Or the other way around.

I was once told that there are no new ideas, it's just that you don't remember where it was copied from. Remember that. It's all about a new experience for the customer, even if it's an old idea.

Thanks to Paul Suggett, About.com Guide