Is there a standard amount of time in which companies promote new products as being new?
I’m eating some Ben & Jerry’s cinnamon bun ice cream, and I noticed that the container says, “new!” all around the top. However, I know that this flavor has been around for at least two years because I had it for the first time a little over two years ago. To me, a two-year-old product should not be promoted as new. How long do you think it is appropriate for companies to say that their products are new? Is there a normal length of time to which most companies adhere?
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7 Answers
As long as they can get away with?
New is a buzz word that attracts customer attention. I would think a year would be average. (Are you sure that you are not eating a two-year-old container of ice cream that didn’t sell?)
@marinelife I certainly hope not! But now I simply must go check… I couldn’t find any sort of date on the container. I am mildly disturbed (not so much that I won’t finish the ice cream, though).
After looking at the container failed to produce the desired information, I decided to check out the flavor section of their website. The one I had is not listed among their new flavors, so apparently they’re not still saying it’s new. Unfortunately, that adds a degree of credence to your speculation. I wonder how many things sit on supermarket shelves far longer than they should?
It could be that the packaging plant used up containers at hand. Generally businesses launch something as new when they have promotional dollars at stake. It’s generally 3 months. After that, it’s not new again until it’s “New! Improved!”
That would be logical, but in this case, that would also be a crazy amount of extra packaging. One would hope that someone in the company could handle that particular math problem…
@bobbinhood (Hangs head) I am sorry, but your post made me laugh.
@marinelife I was hoping it would be amusing. This calls for a victory dance.
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