In my last article 'Paying For a Name. Is it Really Worth It?' I touched on how differentiation tricks us into buying things that were actually worth far lesser and allowed us to realize that alternatives for products exist and at that, equal-worth alternatives and NOT lesser buys that are cheaper - a topic I covered in 'Bargaining: Can There Be Any Myth to It?' These realities face us on a daily basis. Realities we don't see plainly because we are never taught to do so. What we are taught at home and schools is that we must follow and think within the confines of the norm. Unfortunately, oftentimes the norm is ripping you off and you simply cannot realize it. To some of you, this topic I am covering is quite intuitive, but covering it is essential to my buildup into related topics so read on. 'So,' you ask, 'how do I conform to the whims of business since I only learn what I was taught at home and school and not by businesses around me?' The fact of this matter is that businesses teach you DAILY! Yes daily!!! How? By bombarding you in all directions at every available time.
Those of you who have lived through the most horrible wars of our century would know the London Blitz well. The Blitz was a German military operation in which tens of hundreds of Luftwaffe rained bombs down night and day upon Great Britain with the goal of making a way for their ground troops to enter and instilling paralyzing fear on the general population. The tactic of Blitzkrieg, was a common German strategy that they used to much success in many of their battles and consisted of repetitive, short but severe barrages of ongoing heavy strikes on the enemy. Fortunately for Britain, it's potency wasn't as great as it was in previous battles. Blitzkrieg is the potent strategy of the business world today but toward a more peaceful end! The aims however, are still the same: to get it's target to progress into a subconscious state of loss if it does not buy a certain product. This is achieved by carefully dissecting your waking times to find moments when your attention can be stolen and then stealing the attention you give during those short times, through TV media, banner advertisements in every fathomable location you and I might frequent, through radio sound bites and even through your mobile phones. The result is that every second you spend out of work and sleep is sought to be taken by ad media around you...a Blitzkrieg for sure! So what are the drawbacks of such in 'invasion'? Plenty! My aim here however, is to focus on the drawbacks that directly affect your value - and once again, I mean your economic value, something I elaborated on in my article 'Does Price REALLY matter?'.
The most severe drawback of this media 'blitzkrieg' in terms of value relates directly to yes, you guessed it again, price! Advertising media is a highly lucrative, and therefore, extremely expensive business. Advertising costs start anywhere from thousands, to hundreds of thousands. The problem with this is twofold. Economists love to tell us that the guys who can afford big paying ads usually have large production runs that are enough to afford them economies of scale, offsetting costs which are then passed off to consumers (you and i). This phenomenon (no pun intended) rarely ever happens. Let me ask you this question Ask yourself this question: How many times have you seen the price of a product you buy fall, apart from sales periods? We have ALL lived through price rises, but hardly ever through price falls and somehow, no economic theory can explain properly this! Now back to the problem.
For businesses to fund advertisements, their prices need to adequately cover it with little or no loss to their profit. That's just how business works! This means you, the consumer, has to pay for it! To some - a very few number of you, who i must say i find to be quite peculiar - this might seem fair, but here lies the problem: humans are conditioned by what they see and hear around them. The problem with this, then, is that not only do consumers subconsciously register that the products in ads are the BEST products around them, but they also inadvertently believe that these are the ONLY products available. More often than not, you and I end up buying what we see in ads. The truth, however, is that very many products exist on the market that are of equal or greater values at the same price or less!!!
The second problem that you is also simple and really unfortunate. The second problem with this advertising dilemma is that most of the businesses that do not actively advertise struggle to stay afloat and without enough profits advertising becomes a burden that they cannot afford leading inevitably to no sales and the process repeats itself until the business goes bust! The truly miserable part of all this is that quality products at good prices are foregone, leaving you, the consumer, with pricey products of questionable worth!
However, as ALWAYS with me, there is an upside to this issue that is slowly taking shape through the internet. If you have read all my articles, this will be crystal clear by this time. If it isn't, however (ha ha), think 'internet', and think 'seeing every available alternative in a glance at the click of a mouse' and think 'free advertising for businesses' and you would now effectively have the power in your hands to take advantage of the tools and power to increase your value and not fall prey to price, psychology and an unstable business system!
It's now quite clear to you that price alone cannot vouch for quality and that advertisements don't necessarily mean good value deals for money. In this case, should there be other methods of assessing businesses and their products? I begin a series to cover this from my next article: 'Bargain Juice: Scanning a buy BEYOND price!' Watch out for it.
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