Today's Marketing

 

The fact remains, we need marketing and advertising for a variety of reasons:

1. to sell products
2. to promote a new company
3. to hire workers
4. to sponsor shows and events
5. to grow the economy
6. to influence opinions
7. to change beliefs

While I am sure you can think of several reasons I did not list, the fact remains that marketing and advertising has been part of our lifestyle for decades.

However...

what you may or may not understand or BELIEVE is that marketing and advertising has never been designed to BENEFIT YOU.

That may not be easy for you to accept but it is the truth.

Companies do not advertise to help you and your family out, they advertise to MAKE MONEY and specifically to MAKE A PROFIT...

BUT...

they can only achieve this goal if YOU BUY!!!

If a product benefits you, that is a happy unintended consequence for that company.

For example,

my cancer medication is $12,000 each month for 30 pills.  My cancer meds do in fact benefit me because they are keeping me alive.   The cost of each pill is $400 and it does not cost that much for the company to manufacture.

• Demand for that pill has caused it to increase in value.
• R&D on the pill was expensive and the company wants to pay itself back for that investment.

What makes this situation worse is the fact that we manufacture products to need to be replaced in about 5 years.  Repeat business via replacement also helps the manufacturer to make money.

When I was in grad school, my marketing class taught us the concept of BUILT-IN OBSELESCENCE...  in other words, build it so that it does not last long and will need to be replaced.

In so doing, companies are benefitting themselves FIRST and you second...

US Companies take advantage of the ignorance of the general public.