In the previous article, I talked about the various stages of the Product Life Cycle. However, style, fashion, and fad are three terms used to describe the life cycle trends of a product. The three trends are depicted are as follows:
In relation to the time, sales, and the four stages, these three terms are used to describe the life cycle trends that a product goes through.
The 'fad' is one trend that comes and goes quickly. Fads can see a fast increase and decrease at the same pace as well. A trend that gains fame through the hype, fads are unreliable and cannot be trusted. Some of the products go through a phase in their life cycle where they have a fad-like increase and then, a just as quick decrease. A fad is just a temporary period of unusually high sales that happen to a product. It is driven by customer enthusiasm and immediate product or brand popularity.
To see how a fad affects society and it's consumer behavior, the best examples are the Rubik's Cube and oversized t-shirts. When these fads appeared in society, the consumers went into a buying frenzy and had to have one of them. There was not one household that did not own a Rubik's Cube. Suddenly, every one of them wanted to solve these cubes and prove themselves to be geniuses. Just like it had come, it disappeared. All variants of the Rubik's Cube like the mirror cube, pyramid cube, and others got wiped away from existence as well.
Oversized t-shirts were quite the trend, or so I thought. Turns out, they were a fad after all. It became a very big fad. Everyone, especially girls wanted to own an over-sized t-shirt. All the major brands went into overtime after they started manufacturing these products. After a steep increase in sales for a month or two, the fad quickly disappeared. Nobody wanted to buy them anymore.
A fad affects society and it's consumer behavior for a short span of time. It makes the consumers run hither-tither for a product and dies down pretty soon as well.
As you would have already figured out, style is one trend that is unpredictable. No matter how much you think you know what the style is going to be, it will always manage to surprise you. Style is a trend that comes, goes, and then comes back again. Throughout the life cycle, we can see situations where the style dips and then rises when the customer interest is renewed. When one style fades out, another style is introduced.
The two examples that can be used to explain style are palazzos and denim-on-denim. Since the fashion industry is one that has major changes in style, examples from the same will easily explain the style trend in the life cycle. The palazzos were introduced in the 1960s. During that time it was a huge trend. The palazzos were worn by both men and women alike. Everyone wanted to have their share of popularity by wearing them. Slowly, it went out of style. You can see that these pants have come back in style. with its comfortable model and breezy material, who would not want to wear a palazzo?
When denim came out in the '70s, nobody thought that it could be worn as denim-on-denim. In the late 90s, it became a big style statement when everybody rocked the trend of denim-on-denim. People bought denim jackets and wore them along with jeans. It again popped back up as a trend in 2010, when people started wearing and exhausting the trend again.
A particular style trend can influence society for quite a long period of time. It gives everyone to catch up to the trend and make style statements of their own.
The last trend in the product life cycle is fashion. More progressive trend than the others, it comes and goes away slowly. A fashion trend enters a market, grows steadily, and then declines gradually. A fashion trend will be around for a long time. It will start off as something that is used by the prominent personalities and then will fizzle out to a trend that people from all walks of everyday life will follow.
The first example I would like to use to drive the point home is sparkly clothes. A huge trend at a point in time, this was initially made popular by celebrities from Hollywood. Catching on to the trend, people followed suit as well. A fashion trend for a very long time, it slowly declined and ended up being a fashion trend that was once there.
The second example is that of hair coloring. A fashion trend that has been around for a very long time, it still has not faded away. What started off as subtle streaks of bright colors have become full-fledged colors. Other trends that have come up in association with this are coloring your hair ombre, highlighting it, and so on. As the trend is still going on, it is not known as to when this will stop being a trend.
A style trend affects society the most. They have to understand the trend and then decide if they want to go along with it or not. The consumers will have to take a decision regarding the same as a style trend is going to be there for a very long time.
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