An approach based on the Bass model for analyzing the effects of feature fatigue on customer equity

Integrating more features into one product makes the product more attractive, thereby increasing initial sales; however, once customers start using the high-feature product, they become dissatisfied with the usability problems caused by too many features. This phenomenon is called “feature fatigue”. Feature fatigue will lead to dissatisfaction and negative word-of-mouth, which will damage the brand’s long-term profit, and ultimately decrease the manufacturer’s customer equity. In this paper, we propose an approach based on the Bass model to analyze the effects of feature fatigue on customer equity, helping designers evaluate and alleviate feature fatigue. We integrate product capability, usability, and word-of-mouth effects into the Bass model to analyze customer purchase behavior under different product capability and usability. Then a customer equity model is proposed to calculate customer equity according to customer purchase behavior. A feature fatigue degree is defined and a feature fatigue evaluation method is proposed, providing decision supports for designers to decide what features should be added so as to alleviate feature fatigue. Finally, a case example is illustrated to validate the proposed approach.