I don’t know about other people but I remember a time when I was a kid when there were games and toys that were so popular that everyone had them. For example Pokémon cards, Furby, Yugioh cards etc…What happened to these games and toys? Why are they not as popular as they once were? There are a few applicable terms I learned in my marketing class, one is an instant bust and the other is fad.

Fad

A fad is a game, a toy or something that was popular for a while then abruptly stops being popular. I noticed this happen with toys like Furby and Pokémon. 

Fads come and go and when a company makes a toy that becomes a fad the lifecycle of the product changes. This sometimes can be a problem for a company if they didn’t plan for that. There is a way to pre plan a products demise, that’s by having a pre planned obsolescence. This is where a company releases a product on the market and in 6 months they plan to have another product to replace that one. Apple does this well with their phones every year.

Instant Bust

Instant bust is when a company launches a product on the market and it does not sell. The company then lacks the resources to continue to market and produce the product. Many big companies have had instant busts one very popular one is Pepsi Blue. This product went nowhere in the North American market and cost Pepsi million of dollars.

I know that I don’t want to make a product that becomes an instant bust or a fad because either way in the long run you will lose money, and no business wants to lose money.