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Honesty in marketing

#21
pizza_zps13aaf711.jpg
 
#26
My friend and I decided to have a movie night at my place yesterday evening since I recently got a new TV for the house. We got some beer and thought we'd get some guacamole and chips to go with it. Anyways, we get back to my place, opened up the guacamole dip, and tried it --- yuck! It tasted awful. We weren't expecting it to be amazing, but we thought it'd be passable. I read the ingredients and get this, the dip contained less than 2% avocado! :eek:

How the heck can you sell something with less than 2% avocado and (legally) call it guacamole dip? It didn't even taste like guacamole.
 
#27
jmattbassplaya said:
My friend and I decided to have a movie night at my place yesterday evening since I recently got a new TV for the house. We got some beer and thought we'd get some guacamole and chips to go with it. Anyways, we get back to my place, opened up the guacamole dip, and tried it --- yuck! It tasted awful. We weren't expecting it to be amazing, but we thought it'd be passable. I read the ingredients and get this, the dip contained less than 2% avocado! :eek:

How the heck can you sell something with less than 2% avocado and (legally) call it guacamole dip? It didn't even taste like guacamole.
Click to expand...

I'm betting somewhere it said

Avocado *flavored* dip.. :mad:
 
#31
I once sold pianos for a living (even though I don't play them well at all). The district manager of piano sales summed it up for me nicely. "People don't buy products. They buy stories and feelings." And he could not have been more right. I would sell people pianos that were twice as expensive as what they came in for by helping them recall sitting around the piano at their grandmother's house while she played. Suddenly brand, price, delivery, etc were all just minor details. All they cared about was whether or not it matched their hardwood floors. The point is, lots of people really do like to buy things they THINK are amazing even if they aren't. And marketers can play those people without even trying. Nike shoes don't make you run faster. Jeeps can't go many places that other SUVs can't with the right driver. And don't even get me started on the total BS that people on this very forum will believe about what affects bass tone. And if you think the LIVE music crowd is insane about that stuff, go into a high-end STUDIO sometime.

Marketing has its place. As long as a product doesn't fall apart or kill me quickly I am OK with buying a feeling to a certain extent.
 
#32
two fingers said:
"People don't buy products. They buy stories and feelings."
Click to expand...

Exactly this. Why do you think beer commercials would show cool, young, people laughing, having a great time, and talking to beautiful members of the opposite sex? Or why a trip to Abercrombie and Fitch gives you an entire experience inside the store, from beautiful young sales staff, to hip music, to even the store smelling like cologne? You're the same exact person you were before drinking that beer and wearing those clothes, only when you do you FEEL differently about yourself... until you realize you're still YOU. Then you go and do it again.

Advertising was never meant to sell people what they need. It's to sell people things to make them feel like they're someone they want to be, and once a person is snagged the cost almost doesn't matter.

And... advertising isn't just for products- look at the advertising for hospitals, churches, even jobs "Come join our team, a great place to work!, top 100 best places to work in Ohio" It's all designed to make you feel good, but look at the places that say that, a lot of them are places you would never want to work.

People call me cynical about a lot of things, but I've learned to be cynical in a world that is only, in the end, trying to cheat me out of my money as quickly as possible. Advertising is only one of those ways. It's like Tyler Durden said in Fight Club: "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s*** we don't need."

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread...
 
#34
jmattbassplaya said:
My friend and I decided to have a movie night at my place yesterday evening since I recently got a new TV for the house. We got some beer and thought we'd get some guacamole and chips to go with it. Anyways, we get back to my place, opened up the guacamole dip, and tried it --- yuck! It tasted awful. We weren't expecting it to be amazing, but we thought it'd be passable. I read the ingredients and get this, the dip contained less than 2% avocado! :eek:

How the heck can you sell something with less than 2% avocado and (legally) call it guacamole dip? It didn't even taste like guacamole.
Click to expand...

For $4, you can buy all of the ingredients to make your own, in season.
 
#36
Burlington Northern Railroad has commercials on cable tv. Now I realize rail transport is a valuable, and important business, but will the average television viewer see a commercial for a freight railroad, and think: "I'll send this package to Aunt Mary by rail."?

I also recall years ago, when the local electric utility used to have television commercials. If someone was watching television, they most likely already had electric service. Did the utility envision a family sitting around a coal fired television, and one of them saying: "Hey Paw, we should git us some of that thar eelectricity"?
 
#37
P Town said:
Burlington Northern Railroad has commercials on cable tv. Now I realize rail transport is a valuable, and important business, but will the average television viewer see a commercial for a freight railroad, and think: "I'll send this package to Aunt Mary by rail."?

I also recall years ago, when the local electric utility used to have television commercials. If someone was watching television, they most likely already had electric service. Did the utility envision a family sitting around a coal fired television, and one of them saying: "Hey Paw, we should git us some of that thar eelectricity"?
Click to expand...

They're trying to attract investors more than customers.
 
#38
jmattbassplaya said:
My friend and I decided to have a movie night at my place yesterday evening since I recently got a new TV for the house. We got some beer and thought we'd get some guacamole and chips to go with it. Anyways, we get back to my place, opened up the guacamole dip, and tried it --- yuck! It tasted awful. We weren't expecting it to be amazing, but we thought it'd be passable. I read the ingredients and get this, the dip contained less than 2% avocado! :eek:

How the heck can you sell something with less than 2% avocado and (legally) call it guacamole dip? It didn't even taste like guacamole.
Click to expand...

Because its called "guacamole dip" and not just guacamole.
I dislike pretty much ALL premade guac, I prefer to make my own.

two fingers said:
"People don't buy products. They buy stories and feelings."
Click to expand...

Sounds like something Don Draper would say.
 
#39
"People don't buy products. They buy stories and feelings."

I've heard this version : "Facts tell stories sell".

It's why I would fail as a salesman, and am a glib salesman's nightmare.
 
#40
P Town said:
Burlington Northern Railroad has commercials on cable tv. Now I realize rail transport is a valuable, and important business, but will the average television viewer see a commercial for a freight railroad, and think: "I'll send this package to Aunt Mary by rail."?

I also recall years ago, when the local electric utility used to have television commercials. If someone was watching television, they most likely already had electric service. Did the utility envision a family sitting around a coal fired television, and one of them saying: "Hey Paw, we should git us some of that thar eelectricity"?
Click to expand...

Probably has something to do with the demographics of the show you were watching, or else with the political/regulatory environment. You send packages to Aunt Mary by rail whenever you use UPS Ground. But the ad was probably either hoping to snag investors if the show appealed to an older/wealthier demographic, or to create general warm fuzzies about the industry with upcoming regulatory hearings or in hopes of getting a tax break.
 

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