relatively inexpensive products that consumers buy that they don't expect to last - and perhaps in some cases, don't want to last.

Some of the products that come to mind immediately are products aimed at female consumers. Throw-away plastic containers for instance. Ladies, if you're old enough, remember when Tupperware(R) containers, despite relatively high prices, were desirable because they lasted so long and had good tight seals? And remember how they yellowed after awhile, especially if you put something like spaghetti sauce in them? So even though they did their job, they just didn't look very appealing?

Plastics manufacturers solved that problem by developing lower-cost plastic containers that were promoted as disposable. They were thinner and made to be thrown away. Apparantly manufacturers assumed that if the product was promoted as being disposable and didn't cost much, women wouldn't feel bad about tossing them out - and buying more.

But a strange thing happened (at least in my home). It turned out that those "disposable" containers actually lasted quite a while as long as you didn't microwave something greasy in them. So consumers (or at least the one writing this blog) didn't buy them all that often.

So, what next? How do you get consumers to actually throw the containers away after use? Well... I think at least one manufacturer found an answer: make sure you can't reuse the containers. The last disposable containers I purchased were flimsier and the covers didn't fit well after they were washed once.

Kitchen items, of course, aren't the only things manufacturers have made disposable. Hosiery companies seem to have figured out that
a) A lot of women wear stockings every day
b) No one likes to see stockings hanging around the bathroom to dry
c) If stockings run, women will throw them out and buy new ones
d) The secret to marketing success is to sell very cheap stockings that get runs in the toes near the end of the first day you wear them so you can (have to) throw them out after one use.

(Men's hosiery manufacturers seem to have been cagier in finding ways to force men to buy new socks. Instead of creating socks that fall apart (and therefore can't be reused), they secretly convinced washing machine manufactures to install invisible sock-eating gremlins in every unit they sell.)

Unless you are an inventor or manufacturer, you probably can't build planned obsolescence into your small business products or services. But you you should be looking for ways to get your customers to buy repeatedly from you. Capturing customer contact information, adding new product lines, and sending newsletters or mailings to your customers to remind them of products and services you sell will increase the lifetime value of your customers and your profitability.