That said, there is a relatively common expression used these days "Truth in Market." "Truth in Market," as I use it and understand it otherwise, means simply that if a product or behavior exists consistently, it must then be because the market supports it. Based on that premise, for instance, there must be a demand somewhere for the H2 or the Escalade, because GM would not make those cars and market them if there was not a demand. In this example, GM is driven by their market's demand for automobiles that meet these criteria. GM uses market research, psychologists and designers to come up with and market test these products, to then decide if they pass muster. Once they do, they come out on the market.
Based on this idea, one can apply the same reasoning to other marketed items. Case and Point, SPAM. I know many of you have GMAIL, and you can easily delete all of the SPAM from the SPAM filter. With that, in the process, does anyone ever spend time reading the headers prior to deletion?
Upon a glance of the 67 in my "SPAM" folder, a wide variety contain reference to the following:
- A certain pharmaceutical labled "Cialis"
- Enhancement of something quite adult shared between two in the process of intimacy
- General Pharmaceuticals
- Another Pharm "propecia"
- "Rolex"
- And lastly, enlargement of something, let's just say something phallic
With all of these items, and how consistent they are filtered by GMAIL's "SPAM FILTER", I have to assume that the products are appealing to a rather massive market. It's just so absurd, but if one looks at media, those are all related to what we have marketed to us most often: vanity, intimacy and money...
My perspective on it is this: there is a poor person going through SPAM solicitations to buy these products, or there wouldn't be the SPAM. Who are these poor folks? If they have access to SPAM, surely they have means to obtain ED Pharmaceuticals, right? I just don't get it, insofar as all of these products are those that one can obtain through more legitimate channels tha "T()dd Sc()nz Farm The Playz Where Real Playaz Playz"
4 comments:
Matt, and isn't is scary what people seem to want to buy?? For example...I caught the tail end of Oprah the other day. The entire Osmond family had been flown in. Personally I can't stand that family,but what I saw made me even less of a fan. Marie Osmand apparently has her own line of dolls that she markets on the home shopping network. I can't imagine who buys these things? She also managed to plug her own line by having a creepy baby Oprah doll made and presenting it to her on national television. I think Oprah seemed a little freaked out by it too, but she accepted it and was just like "wow"?! I kept wondering if Oprah thought, "if I'd had a baby, is this what it would look like"? Ha, that is another subject for another day. Safe to say it was an uncomfortable moment for everyone involved. My point however is this...if the products in demand reflect who we are as Americans, and I think your opinion would be that they do, and the fact that there is such a large home shopping network audience, combined with the fact the average American has $10,000 in credit card debt, it certainly does show an obsession with things and that could be the subject of another blog altogether. Nicole p.s. I took a stab at ending this with a really long sentence just to warm your heart. Love you, nic.
Nicole, I think you are spot on with this! Yes, my point is ultimately that products are on the market, because they are in demand, which reflects on our desires and our society. Gross. It's too bad, but what can one do? Does this perspective make me an elitist?
Don't confuse the products/scams offered in spam email for market demand. All spam efforts are basically get-rich-quick schemes: send out 100 million emails and hope that 100 suckers respond. If you make 10 bucks off of each one, you make a thousand dollars on an investment of nearly zero.
The Market Truth that spam illustrates is the insatiable demand for get-rich-quick scams.
Very true Uncle John; however, by the same token, my point in writing it was: whether it be some means via spam to seduce money from people or in marketing and design, the products we are being sold are the products we as a society are craving or wanting. Marketing studies precede product development; therefore, we can judge ourselves as a society based on what we see being sold to us.
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