I think comapnies also do it because many consumer products have fallen into the Hollywood syndrome. If you don’t have a new and exciting product every six months, you’ll be a horrible failure! The only way to keep your brand fresh in the minds of people is to create a new version of one of your products. It’s a horrible cycle, where the consumer gets excited by a new flavor of BLANK, the new flavor sells well, a competitor comes out with they one new flavor of BUNK, and maybe it steals market share from BLANK, so BLANK comes out with yet another new flavor.

As the new flavor war starts to really ramp up, the consumer, who in the beginning never really thought that they needed a new flavor but was interested that one was intorduced, starts to get bored more easily as new flavors become the norm. Or perhaps this is simply a perception the companies have of the consumer. Regardless, as the consumer appears to become more fickle and choosy and “demands” more flavors, the companies have to become more and more inventive on a faster cycle.

That’s one of my theories, though working for Disney, I can say for sure I’m not too off the mark here.

One problem with all this creation of new products is that, inevitably, some of them won’t survive. Many products I have come to use have vanished to make way for newer, flashier, stupider variations. It’s even a joke to myself: Once I start using a product and buy it regularly, I can be assured it will disappear within a year or two, and my experimentation to find a replacement shampoo, soda, deoderant, laundry detergent, etc. begins anew.

And blah blah blah!

I could talk about this for hours!

Campbells soup does the same thing, and they actually now sell (or give away)their own shelf system to guarantee the real estate.