Bullshit marketting

[m0ds]

Maybe it's just me or do some marketting campaigns take people for absolute fools? I seem to read things all the time where a company says "NOW WE DO THIS!" and I'm thinking, but you've always done it. For instance I've just seen an advert on my bank for a saver account that I have, but one of the "great parts" of it is you no longer pay for a withdrawal. This just seems like bullshit for dummies cos I've had my online saver for a few years and never had to pay a withdrawal charge. In fact the only way you can get your online saver money out is by transferring it to your main account, which is a 20 second process, and we know you don't get charged for withdrawals from your main account.

Also, the recent bustage of Woolworths. Absolute fucking disgrace. I was looking at CD's in there that weren't on any kind of offer but were 7.99. A week later the shop had been announced bust and a lot of stock had been bought and the shelves starting to empty. That CD was now £12.99 in their "closing down" sale. In fact a whole bundle of items I'd had my eye on had their prices increased, yet there were 50% off posters all over the store. What an absolute fucking cheek!

Ok I just had to rant that. Has anyone else felt they've been taken for a ride with certain adverts or sales? Sofa companies claiming they've taken 500 off when in fact it was that price all along etc. True the western world may be dumbing down a bit but sometimes I feel some companies expect people to be really dumb in order to get them on board. Let me know your thoughts - but in conclusion, don't trust sales!!!

[Matti]

Maybe it's just me or do some marketting campaigns take people for absolute fools?

Isn't that what marketing is all about? Especially TV- and radio-Ads....

[Privateer Puddin']

Also, the recent bustage of Woolworths. Absolute fucking disgrace. I was looking at CD's in there that weren't on any kind of offer but were 7.99. A week later the shop had been announced bust and a lot of stock had been bought and the shelves starting to empty. That CD was now £12.99 in their "closing down" sale. In fact a whole bundle of items I'd had my eye on had their prices increased, yet there were 50% off posters all over the store. What an absolute fucking cheek!

Was it being liquidated? If so, they take over, often put the prices up and bring them down as they get closer to closing, making as much money as possible (a lot of people will come in to get a deal) and shift remaining stock.

[Darth Mandarb]

I actually LOVE that kind of marketing ... I mean if people are stupid silly enough to fall for such marketing tactics then I just call 'em effective!

My favorite, current, bit of clever marketing is the ShamWow ads.

"If you call now, within the next 20 minutes, 'cause we can't do this all day..."

Yet that same commercial, claiming the same 20 minutes, is on about 3-4 times an hour!

The entire ShamWow campaign is so deliciously hoaky and irritating that it makes you hate it ... yet you remember it!

Just recently tShirtHell announced that he's shuttin' down and closin' up shop!  10 February will be his last day and then tShirtHell is going away for good.  He won't sell it to anybody, he won't "sell out" (so he says).  I see this as a BRILLIANT marketing scheme!  Mark my words, come 10 Feb., the site will somehow remain open, "All the in-pouring of love has given me a change of heart!"  And in the previous weeks, after his claim of closing up shop, he'll have sold a record number of tShirts!  Brilliant!

I've also marveled at the recent Mac v PC commercials with the parody characters of Gates and Jobs.  These ads basically call the Mac user-base idiots "If you aren't smart enough to figure out how to use a [very easy to operate] PC, use a Mac!  We're idiot-resistant!"  And all the while they make the consumer  actually want to be an idiot and join the "exclusive" club of mac-users!  Very brilliantly done!

Now ... the kind of marketing I do not like are the cheesy infomercial type commercials for products that supposedly make something easier.  Then they show video of the "thing" that their product makes easier and the person is just having the hardest time with it like it's soooooo incredibly difficult to pull your wallet out of your pocket, or to open a can of peaches, or to strain pasta!  Obviously effective marketing, but terrible visual impact!

Try my product!!

[ManicMatt]

I was in Zavvi looking at what titles they have in store left, whats with them closing down and all. Ooh "25% off all these cds", ah Angels and Airwaves second album, I wouldn't mind that. £16? Ouch. Take off the 25 percent.. whats that, about 11.99? Yeah guys think I'll get it off Amazon for the reasonable 9.99, thanks.

[LimpingFish]

HMV has a habit of doing similar during their sales.

DVD's will have the maximum rrp applied before marking them "down". A random film, say V for Vendetta, will usually retail in HMV for under twenty euro, regardless of rrp. During sales it's maximum rrp will be applied, usually taking the price to over thirty euro, and any new reductions will will be subtracted from that.

Which will probably bring the price back down to...twenty euro!

They do have genuinely reduced stock, but I suspect they pad it out with this kind of thing.

[Mr Flibble]

If you suspect a retailer is adverting a reduction in price when the product was not for sale at a higher price for at least three months previously, then you should contact the Office of Fair Trade who will dispatch a Trading Standards Officer and the retailer will be taken to court and sued for false advertising.

[paolo]

If you suspect a retailer is adverting a reduction in price when the product was not for sale at a higher price for at least three months previously, then you should contact the Office of Fair Trade who will dispatch a Trading Standards Officer and the retailer will be taken to court and sued for false advertising.

(I think your message was in reply to the one about HMV, so if that's what you were referring to you, please ignore the rest of this comment.)

You're quite right about that, but Woolworths has closed down for good now. No one would get very far suing them now.

Anyway, that's not what they were advertising - they were saying that their goods were "up to 50% off" (which increased to 60% and then 70% in the final few days). That's above board, because it means some prices can be reduced by less than that, some can stay the same and some can even go up. There was no suggestion that everything was being sold at half price.

[Tuomas]

It's a funny thing actually. There's a big electric apparatus chain here called Gigantti. They've for long claimed to be the cheapest, and in fact, they used to say, that if you found the same stuff cheaper somewhere, they'd drop down their price. Well that was then. Nowadays they give out weekly letters with huge SALE! texts and pictures and prices. Really makes me laugh, and here's why:

None of the prices listed are lowered. The law clearly states, that when something is on sale, the original price must be listed so the customer can do the math. However, they're not lying. On one of the pages, there's always some useless gadget for half price, and thus they really do have a sale. And the rest of the paper is basically just ads that look like something was on sale.

They ended the campaign of selling cheap, but they still continue being crap at service.