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Marc2b -> RE: Freedom of the Press in danger? (7/6/2007 1:56:19 PM)
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quote:
Clients conduct scientific studies... etc.
I don’t disagree with any of that. It is perfectly natural for businesses to try and convince the consumer to buy from them. As long as they are honest about their product/service, none of that bothers me in the least. After all, I spend my day trying to convince people to come into an art gallery. Which of the following two demographics would I be better off directing my advertising dollars to: pre-teen boys, or middle-aged women?
If you feel that people buying a Hummer because Arnold drives one shows a lack of discernment on peoples part, I would say two things.
First, if there is a general lack of discernment in most people, the problem lies in our education system – we are failing to teach critical thinking in our schools.
Second, we should be careful about judging people we don’t know. Maybe they bought a Hummer for other reasons. I’ve had college know-it-all hippies scream at me that I am killing the planet because I drive a pick-up truck, and don’t need one to get by and that I should really drive a Hybrid. Really? Just how am I supposed to put a twelve foot high, seven hundred pound, wood carving into the back of a Hybrid? Everyone is motivated by different reasons and advertisers, for all their studies and for all their effort, are still subject to the decisions of the individual.
I think there is much confusion on some people’s part by what I mean by the free market. I mean two things.
First, I mean a system, within a framework of law, in which people have the ability (freedom) to buy or not buy what they desire (from the available choices) for whatever reason. And, to sell or not sell what products and or services (legal one’s of course) they desire at what prices they desire.
Secondly, I mean the cumulative effect of millions of people making thousand (often seemingly irrelevant) decisions every day. Should I have lunch at Pizza Hut or Dominos? Should I gas up at Mobile or Sunoco? These decisions are made by different people for different reasons. Person A may go to Dominos simply because it is closer while person B will drive a little farther because he like Pizza Hut better. Businesses, of all sizes, will rise or fall upon the outcome of this cumulative effect and upon their ability to respond to it. If a company puts out a bad product, no amount of advertising will save them. Word gets around. Word of mouth, for good or ill, is still the greatest advertising of them all.
Just the other day, Kenmore lost a sale and Maytag gained one because of what I said to a friend who wanted to buy a dishwasher. I told him that my last apartment had a Maytag and my current one a Kenmore. Further more, I told him (from my own experience) that a Kenmore dishwasher is a cheap plastic piece of shit that is constantly breaking down and doesn’t get all the dishes clean even when it is running properly. The Maytag, on the other hand, never broke down and always scrubbed the dishes clean, no matter how dirty the dishes were (I swear to God, you could shove a corpse into a Maytag, turn it on, and when the cycle was complete all you would have is some shiny clean bones!).
Now, I don’t know if other people’s experiences with dishwashers are the same as mine but if enough are, Kenmore is going to have to address quality issues, or start losing out big time. That’s the free market.
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