Fads Life Cycle

I. Introduction:

There are three different phenomena fashion, diffusion and fads. They are all known for their newness. Fashion is a novelty that enjoys change; it is systematic and always designed with the intention to be renewed. In contrast,fads are driven by consumers’ enthusiasm and their tendency to lose their popularity rapidly. Diffusion is the process where novelties take time to grow then suddenly increase to reach the maturity level before they decline.

FADS have been a controversial issue for researchers; they came up with different views concerning FADS and their nature. Moreover, efforts were exerted by researchers to find out descriptive characteristics, reasons for occurring, reasons for booming and reasons for vanishing. Those

The manufacturer seeks profit without making any marketing effort to build strong brands. They follow the hit and run methodology. The second perspective is the consumers who seek uniqueness and high personal status and prestige.

2- Reasons for booming:

There are two independent agents that affect the spread of a Fad, the first one is called Fad Setters; people who are interested in discovering new products, and are usually being imitated by others because of their unique status, wealth, popularity and being known for their elite choices. They choose the fad product according to its value and novelty. The second independent agent is embodied in the Fad Followers; those followers are more of imitators because they do not have the taste or the non-material resources of finding new things, in other words they lack the knowhow not the financial ability. Who imitate the fad setters, the product becomes a symbol for uniqueness and thus it becomes attractive to the followers. Consequently, this imitation by the followers pushes away fad setters, as they find it less appealing after it has lost its value and

Each hierarchy shows a fixed sequence of steps which occur on the way to an attitude.

The standard learning hierarchy: Assuming a person approaches a product decision as a problem-solving process. Beliefs are formed based on knowledge, then its evaluated to form feelings about the product, then engages in relevant behaviour.

The low-involvement hierarchy: Assumes that the consumer does not have strong preferences for one brand over another and instead forms an evaluation after purchasing the product.

The Experiential hierarchy: Assumes that a person acts upon his emotional