Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine your job is to sell rubber bands. You are already the leading rubber band supplier in the country – chiefly because there is no other supplier. Your competition, in fact, is people opting to do without rubber bands. Nonetheless, you have set yourself a bold target of increasing rubber band sales by 130 per cent by 2030, and you want to reduce the number of people using rubber band alternatives by 20 per cent in the same period.

The main problem you face is that many of the regular users of your rubber bands don’t seem to like them very much. Your bands, they say, are too unreliable. They are often nowhere to be found when you need them. They don’t appreciate the Ryanair-style reservation charges you levy on prepaid band users, particularly when your rubber band booking system is so often malfunctioning.

Still, they persevere with your rubber bands because many have no choice. The number of customers is increasing with little-to-no effort from you – mainly because, so far, they have been relatively cheap, the overall population is growing, and with it the potential customer base is expanding.

So what do you do to try to achieve that bold 130 per cent target? You whack on a huge price increase.

‘I’ve built a life with someone but I feel more connection with my ex. Should I leave?’

When two in five Irish people would ‘let it burn’, we’ve got a problem

Inside Galway’s oldest department store: ‘We’re not Brown Thomas and we don’t........

© The Irish Times