Customer Retention Without Planned Obsolescence

¶ … difficulty with customer retention for Storz & Bickel is that their chief high-end product, the Volcano Vaporizer, lacks "planned obsolescence."

I am using the term that was devised by Alfred P. Sloan for the Ford Motor Company, but this is now basically a strategy implemented by all major manufacturing corporations -- in some sense, the point of an iPhone 5 is that it will eventually be made obsolete by an iPhone 6, and thus customer retention strategies are built around maintaining brand loyalty. As Medeiros (2003) writes about the original planned obsolescence strategy: "Sloan's idea was that automobiles should change each year, and should each year become more expensive (at least to the cost of production)….Each year, the new-model cars would have more improvements added on, different engines, different styling, different comfort features" (287).

The problem is that this strategy -- which works well with Ford automobiles or Apple iPhones -- does not work with all technology. Storz & Bickel's Volcano is built deliberately so as to not require replacement: this is how it has risen above the heads of its competitors, which are frequently produced shoddily by start-up companies looking to provide a cheaper product (knowing that the one vulnerability of the Volcano is its high price tag). Instead, brand loyalty for Storz & Bickel has to be built around the fact that the Volcano Vaporizer requires replacement parts. For example, the plastic bags into which the vapor is collected are ultimately not durable in the same way that the machinery is. While it is ostensibly possible for the consumer to rig up a different bag to the machine to collect the vapor, the machine works best with the Storz & Bickel proprietary bag. Thus, we might consider the example of a Hoover vacuum-cleaner, which similarly requires replacement bags to operate -- the goal is to persuade the customer to seek out only Hoover-brand replacement parts, in order to keep the In 2015, the easiest way to maintain this kind of customer loyalty is through the Internet. This makes sense in the first place, since Storz & Bickel maintain their corporate headquarters in Germany, but the largest marketing strategy is for the emerging American market. (We may assume that Storz & Bickel have already dominated the European market, to the degree that cannabis is legal or decriminalized in independent EU member states ranging from the Netherlands to Portugal.)

However, one difficulty in approaching consumers to survey customer satisfaction is this legal gray area. A Volcano Vaporizer can be sold in New Jersey if the vendor makes no reference to its utility in consuming cannabis (where legality of cannabis is a matter of policy adjustment at present). A Volcano Vaporizer can be sold in Colorado touting its superiority for cannabis users. Therefore the customer satisfaction survey has to be couched in terms that leave it deliberately vague as to what the customers might be using their Volcano to consume: the word "smokeables," to emphasize that one of the chief benefits of a Volcano is that it obviates the need for smoking (which is difficult for some customers, and has potentially negative health risks) by allowing the inhalation of infused vapor.

The following ten-question customer survey is devised to attempt to capture all important information regarding consumer loyalty:

1. Did you find your Volcano vaporizer easy to use?

2. Are replacement parts for the Volcano vaporizer easy to find on the website?

3. How many Volcano bags do you use per month in consuming smokeables?

4. Would a permanent guarantee of regular replacement bags be of interest to you?

5. How likely are you to recommend the Volcano to a friend?

6. Have you ever used another brand of Vaporizer? If so, which? Select from the following list. (List domestic American competitors: Da Buddha, etc.)

7. Have you ever run out of bags for the Volcano vaporizer?

8. Have you experienced any problems with the Volcano vaporizer?

9. Would you like e-mail reminders about possible replacement parts or servicing?

10. Are there any suggestions you have for how we may improve the Volcano vaporizer?