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Posted by Warm Worm on November 4, 2007, 6:30 pm
Don wrote:
> "Warm Worm"> wrote
>>> So, stop buying Breyers. We did...a long time ago. Someone else will fill
>>> your niche if there is one...
>> Like some on the blog-in-question, I was one of those who did so
>> immediately when it happened.
>> I didn't even have to buy it or eat a bite though. I simply noticed the
>> design-change, and then took a look at the ingredients. That was enough to
>> put it back. (The thought had crossed my mind to open it and leave it melt
>> somewhere in the store in protest.)
>> I was annoyed when-- and how-- they changed it. It seemed deceptive or
>> dishonest. (Is that a competitive market-strategy, Don?)
>
> I see that kinda stuff all the time man, and I deal with it my own way, as
> you should too.
> I'm hooked on Cheetos, can eat a whole walmart sized bag in a single swoop,
> then walk around wif orange teefs for 3 days.
> Anyway, last week I bought a bag, tore into them and recoiled in horror.
> WTF?????
> Each individual cheeto was at least 2/3 of its normal size.
> I looked at the outside of the bag, everything looked normal.
> But there they were, bigger than stuttgart, 1/3 off the top, er,
> circumference.
> I don't play that shit.
> So you know what?
> I'm gonna do like I see lots of other people do in the stores.
> Next time I'm gonna pop the bag open and stuff a big handfull in my cave and
> give em a good going over to see if they too are 2/3 the normal size.
> If they are, I sure aint gonna pay for em.
> They'll be stuffed back in aisle 9 somewhere.
> When they start getting more back from the stores than they deliver they'll
> reconsider their marketing strategy.
> I have no problem at all with someone raising their price right out in the
> open.
> But when they get sneeky wif it, try to slide sumfink behind my eyes, I
> start to get a serious case of the ass.
Well that's the thing. Edgar's got a point: Just settle your
serious case of ass the hard way, with security guards and cameras and
cops and tasers and handcuffs and jail and banishment from Walmart.
The idea goes that, since it's the market that counts, then sneaking
things passed people is fair game-- especially if it means added
revenue, profit, lower costs, a greater competitive advantage, etc..
If they get caught, then it's crocodile tears, "Forgive us!" press
releases and damage-control-consultants/talking-heads, and then
people forget (helped along by company/product name-changes and buyouts)
and they just make the sneak sneakier next time...
A rap on the wrist, and it's back to business as usual...
What's one or two people more or less anyway, compared with the majority
who got duped. It's the profit!
And even the ones who noticed are probably just too preoccupied with
life to concern themselves with a "stupid bag of Cheetos".
Stupid bags of this and that add up pretty quickly though, and next
thing you know, you feel yourself lost in a smokescreen and yet more at
the mercy of the marketer/advertiser. Your resolve is weakened along
with your addiction to the product.
Seems that changing some market practices is orders of magnitudes worse
than pulling teeth. Markets and market practices shouldn't be working
like that. The speed at which they self-correct best be most swift if
they are to exist in any sufficient capacity at all.
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