Why do these fades happen?
- Indifference to Competition
- Over-confidence (Arrogance)
- Aggressive Advertising (Annoyance)
- Failure to Update
- Next Big Thing Arrives
There are of course, many things that can be learned from these fades:
- Nothing lasts forever
- Any leader can be overtaken
- Success does not require originality
- Bigger is not always better
- Familiarity breeds contempt
Some fades can be highly instructional:
- Motorola was once the mobile phone leader, now it is clearly Apple
- Arsenio Hall was at one time a very popular late night talk show
- Baseball was "America's Pastime" but now more people watch football
- IBM was passed in the PC market by HP, then HP by Dell, now…?
Some things that appear to be fading:
- Is it to early to consider Brittany Spears a fade?
- Has Christianity faded? Is it because Islam continues to grow?
Some things never seem to fade:
- Levi's 501 jeans
- Chocolate
- Flowers as a symbol of romance
- War
- Greed
Rather than have a very long blog post, I will cover these fades and questions over the next few posts. That way we can explore the reasons and discuss them. If you have an illustrative fade you would like to discuss, please post a comment or send me an email.
(I was going to save this post for April 1 but then I thought people may mistake it for a hoax. It has been my expereince that posts made at night or posted early in the morning attract more readers.)
