In the world ruled by marketing, consumers are less and less in charge. From product packaging to portion sizes, everything is optimized for convenience. Marketing strategies, Customer experience, and Logistics processes guide our choices. But where is our critical thinking about Product Quality, Ethics, and Value for Money? Is marketing the solution, or are we forgetting what we need?
I woke up this morning and thought, “How wonderful it is that we live in a marketing-driven world in this day and age.” When I walk into the supermarket, in a moment, everything I take off the shelf has already been thought about for me. The litre carton of milk, custard, yoghurt,and buttermilk. The portions of vegetables, sliced and portioned. The number of pork chops in a plastic package is chopped off to exactly the right thickness. Everything has already been thought about!
Convenience through marketing?
I’m so glad I don’t have to think about it everywhere anymore. What I also love is the fact that every salesperson nowadays is trained to ask me the right questions as a customer over and over again. Can I help you with anything? What are you looking for? What do you want to use it for? Why do you want this brand, and not another better brand? Do I have to pack it for you, or do you take it with you? I’m starting to feel almost at home in all those shops and companies. It’s wonderful to be able to live so thoughtlessly. I no longer have to worry about thinking or taking something wrong, I used to have to think for myself, but fortunately, that’s over. Thank you, IKEA. Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Zalando, Bader and Amazon. Yes, nowadays you can order everything from the comfort of your home, and it is neatly delivered to your home.
The Influence of Marketing on Our Daily Lives: How We Think Less and Less as Consumers
What I also like so much, and what I think has been very well thought out, is the portioning of meat or cheese, which is of course also neatly wrapped in plastic. Funny that, in my opinion, there is always a chicken leg too little in a package. There are four of us at home, and you often only have packs of three or six. Another thing is that I love red peppers, I can buy them separately for a higher price, but otherwise there is only a package with red, yellow, and green,” the traffic light.” The other vegetables are also custom-packed. I think it’s very handy that there are vegetable mix bags in the refrigerator compartment, especially for me. Asian vegetables, macaroni vegetables, spaghetti vegetables and many other types, all I have to do is choose. I often find it handy that the macaroni or spaghetti is right next to it. Oh yes, and you can have almost everything delivered to your home these days, even without shipping costs.
Positioning and packaging
If I’m sometimes naughty, I order a little more, because at least then I don’t have to pay the shipping costs, nice huh? But sometimes I have a stubborn mood, and then I think, why now, why do I have to buy six chicken legs when I only need four? Why can I buy a plastic bottle of one and a half litres of milk, but not a one-and-a-half-litre carton of custard? Why do I have to buy two bags of 600 grams of vegetables if I think I need a kilo? Why is there always something wrong with a complete product, in my opinion? Why are all product mixes different? There is always a difference between the actual product, the place where it is sold, or where it is in the store, the price, or the quality? It is always said: “We know that there are different people with different wishes, and we want to serve and satisfy everyone.
Is Marketing Fair?
Yes, nowadays, you look pretty embarrassed if you want something different, or there is a well-cultivated salesman in front of you. It is often also: “swallow or suffocate” in this world ruled by marketing, everything has to be tighter (logistics), and faster (turnover rate, lead time), The place on the shelf in the store is already predetermined for each product by the profit margin for the selling party.
Are we as consumers still in control?
So, you have to have eyes in a store “from the front and from the back”. You must not be too small a person, because then you cannot reach the highest shelf. Yes, everything has been thought about for us, everything is exactly how the marketing department thinks we want it. But what do we think, or do I catch us thinking that we don’t think at all anymore?
Time for conscious consumption?
Has the power of big business and marketing machines made us stop thinking? What is actually in all those products, and where are they made? Is it really what we want to buy, or are those things we really want nowhere to be bought anymore? When are we allowed to, or are we going to think again, or are we no longer able to do so because we think we no longer have time for this? By the way: “Time we humans invented ourselves, it didn’t even exist in the past!!
