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Planned Obsolescence
In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is a policy of planning or designing a good (economics), product with an artificially limited Product lifetime, useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain pre-determined period of time upon which it decrementally functions or suddenly ceases to function, or might be perceived as fashion, unfashionable. The rationale behind this strategy is to generate long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases (referred to as "shortening the replacement cycle"). It is the deliberate shortening of a lifespan of a product to force people to purchase functional replacements. Planned obsolescence tends to work best when a producer has at least an oligopoly. Before introducing a planned obsolescence, the producer has to know that the customer is at least somewhat likely to buy a replacement from them (see brand loyal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes what's viewed as basic elements in the economy, including individual agents and markets, their interactions, and the outcomes of interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, and sellers. Macroeconomics analyzes the economy as a system where production, consumption, saving, and investment interact, and factors affecting it: employment of the resources of labour, capital, and land, currency inflation, economic growth, and public policies that have impact on these elements. Other broad distinctions within economics include those between positive economics, describing "what is", and normative economics, advocating "what ought to be"; between economic theory and applied economics; between rati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Product Design
Product design as a verb is to create a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very broad coefficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products. Thus, it is a major aspect of new product development. Product design process: the set of strategic and tactical activities, from idea generation to commercialization, used to create a product design. In a systematic approach, product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas, turning them into tangible inventions and products. The product designer's role is to combine art, science, and technology to create new products that people can use. Their evolving role has been facilitated by digital tools that now allow designers to do things that include communicate, visualize, analyze, 3D modeling and actually produce tangible ideas in a way that would have taken greater human resources in the past. Product design is sometimes confused with (and certainly overlaps with) in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Durable Goods
In economics, a durable good or a hard good or consumer durable is a good that does not quickly wear out or, more specifically, one that yields utility over time rather than being completely consumed in one use. Items like bricks could be considered perfectly durable goods because they should theoretically never wear out. Highly durable goods such as refrigerators or cars usually continue to be useful for several years of use, so durable goods are typically characterized by long periods between successive purchases. Durable goods are known to form an imperative part of economic production. This can be exemplified from the fact that personal expenditures on durables exceeded the total value of $800 billion in 2000. In the year 2000 itself, durable goods production composed of approximately 60 percent of aggregate production within the manufacturing sector in the United States. Examples of consumer durable goods include bicycles, books, household goods (home appliances, consume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entropy
Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynamics, where it was first recognized, to the microscopic description of nature in statistical physics, and to the principles of information theory. It has found far-ranging applications in chemistry and physics, in biological systems and their relation to life, in cosmology, economics, sociology, weather science, climate change, and information systems including the transmission of information in telecommunication. The thermodynamic concept was referred to by Scottish scientist and engineer William Rankine in 1850 with the names ''thermodynamic function'' and ''heat-potential''. In 1865, German physicist Rudolf Clausius, one of the leading founders of the field of thermodynamics, defined it as the quotient of an infinitesimal amount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Nelson (designer)
George Nelson (29 May 1908 – 5 March 1986) was an American industrial designer. While lead designer for the Herman Miller (manufacturer), Herman Miller furniture company, Nelson and his design studio, George Nelson Associates, designed 20th-century modernist furniture. He is considered a founder of American modernist design. Early life Nelson was born on May 29, 1908, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Simeon Nelson and Lillian Canterow Nelson. His parents owned a drugstore. Nelson graduated from Hartford Public High School in 1924, and thereafter attended Yale University. He did not originally set out to become an architect; he happened upon the architecture school at Yale, when he ducked into a building during a rainstorm, in order to get out of the rain. Walking through the building, he came upon an exhibit of students' works entitled "A Cemetery Gateway". Nelson met with some early recognition while still an undergraduate, when he was published in ''Pencil Points'' and Archit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Waste Makers
''The Waste Makers'' is a 1960 book on consumerism by Vance Packard. It was bestselling when it was released. The book argues that people in the United States consume a lot more than they should and are harmed by their consumption. Summary One reviewer summarized the book's thesis as follows: Another reviewer noted: Vance Packard worked to change the meaning of the term "consumerism" from a positive word about consumer practices to a negative word meaning excessive materialism and waste. The ads for his book ''The Waste Makers'' prominently featured the word "consumerism" in a negative way. Reviews One reviewer said that the book is an examination of how economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate o ... became thought to be a virtue. Another reviewer said ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vance Packard
Vance Oakley Packard (May 22, 1914 – December 12, 1996) was an American journalist and social critic. He was the author of several books, including ''The Hidden Persuaders'' and '' The Naked Society''. He was a critic of consumerism. Early life Vance Packard was born on May 22, 1914, in Granville Summit, Pennsylvania, to Philip J. Packard and Mabel Case Packard. Between 1920 and 1932, he attended local public schools in State College, Pennsylvania, where his father managed a dairy farm owned by the Pennsylvania State College (later Penn State University). He identified himself as a "farm boy" throughout his life, although he moved to State College and in later life lived in affluent areas. In 1932, he entered Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a B.A. degree, majoring in English. He graduated in 1936, and worked briefly for the local newspaper, the ''Centre Daily Times''. He earned his master's degree at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1937 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DDB Worldwide
DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper merged their worldwide agency operations to become DDB Needham in 1986. At that same time the owners of Doyle Dane Bernbach, Needham Harper and BBDO merged their shareholdings to form the US listed holding company Omnicom. In 1996, DDB Needham became known as DDB Worldwide. History Doyle Dane Bernbach Bill Bernbach and Ned Doyle worked together at Grey Advertising in New York, where Bernbach was Creative Director. In 1949, they teamed up with Mac Dane, who was running a tiny agency. Together they started ''Doyle Dane Bernbach'' in Manhattan. Dane ran the administrative and promotional aspects of the business; Doyle had a client focus and Bernbach played an integral role in the writing of adver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-World War II by the British Army Officer Ivan Hirst, it is known for the iconic Volkswagen Beetle, Beetle and serves as the flagship brand of the Volkswagen Group, the largest automotive manufacturer by worldwide sales in 2016 and 2017. The group's biggest market is in Automotive industry in China, China, which delivers 40 percent of its sales and profits. Its name is derived from the German-language terms and , translating to "people's car" when combined. History 1932–1940: People's Car project Volkswagen was established in 1937 by the German Labour Front (''Deutsche Arbeitsfront'') in Berlin. In the early 1930s, cars were a luxury – most Germans could afford nothing more elaborate than a motorcycle and only one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins in timber and as the flour milling capital of the world. It occupies both banks of the Mississippi River and adjoins Saint Paul, the state capital of Minnesota. Prior to European settlement, the site of Minneapolis was inhabited by Dakota people. The settlement was founded along Saint Anthony Falls on a section of land north of Fort Snelling; its growth is attributed to its proximity to the fort and the falls providing power for industrial activity. , the city has an estimated 425,336 inhabitants. It is the most populous city in the state and the 46th-most-populous city in the United States. Minneapolis, Saint Paul and the surrounding area are collectively known as the Twin Cities. Minneapolis has one of the most extensive publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooks Stevens
Clifford Brooks Stevens (June 7, 1911 – January 4, 1995) was an American industrial designer of home furnishings, appliances, automobiles, and motorcycles, as well as a graphic designer and stylist. Stevens founded Brooks Stevens, Inc., headquartered in Allenton, Wisconsin. In 1944, along with Raymond Loewy and eight others, Stevens formed the Industrial Designers Society of America. Upon his death in 1995, ''The New York Times'' called Stevens "a major force in industrial design". Background and personal life Stevens was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 7, 1911. Stricken with polio as a child, he was encouraged by his father to practice drawing while confined to his bed, perhaps motivating his career in design. He studied architecture at Cornell University from 1929 to 1933, and established his own home-furnishings design firm in 1934 in Milwaukee. His son, Kipp Stevens, ran the Brooks Stevens Design Associates until late 2008, when he stepped down. In 1959, Stevens op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard London
Bernard London was an American real estate broker known for his 1932 paper ''Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence''. Scholars credit him with coining the term "planned obsolescence". Early life and career in real estate London was born in 1872 or 1873 and began his career in Russia as a builder. London, who was Jewish, emigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Giles Slade wrote that London was self-educated "in the history of building construction" and ultimately pursued a career in real estate in New York, New York. Slade also notes that London was a Freemason. Theories of planned obsolescence Between 1932 and 1935, London wrote three essays in which he argued in favor of policies that facilitated planned obsolescence: ''Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence'' (1932), ''The New Prosperity Through Planned Obsolescence: Permanent Employment, Wise Taxation and Equitable Distribution of Wealth'' (1934), and ''Rebuilding Prosper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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