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Thanks for all the great comments on the last post titled “iPhone Marketing Tricks“.
It turned out to be very popular with you all.
Long time readers may know that I have four wonderful children, three of which have grown up and left home, leaving Ben living with Kim and I on the urban farmlet. My youngest daughter Megan as always struggled with the beast that is popular consumerism, however our frequent little talks are slowly working.
Megan works in a mobile phone shop, to pay her way through University, of which I am very proud. Yesterday I sent her the link to the iPhone post via facebook as a fatherly nudge in the right direction. To my surprise, her reply was as follows (posted with permission);
“Dad, I am well aware that this new phone is a crock of shite and a sad excuse to bring out new accessories that generate billions of dollars in revenue for Apple alone under the rouse of ‘needing’ to change the charger to make the phone thinner.
However in the case of the mobile world – build and they will come, as such. No one that is buying this new phone has a legitimate reason to do so they just ‘want’ it or are lead to believe, through very clever marketing techniques, that they ‘need’ it.
It is sad to see so many people so driven by the supposed ‘status’ that comes from being an iPhone 5 user.
I came to my senses and cancelled my pre-order after I saw the ridiculousness of the whole spectacle.
You never know Dad, your ways may be rubbing off on me and changing my consumeristic ways.”
Touche’, Megan!
Gavin, I am having the same inner thoughts as Megan, only regarding Wal-Mart. I have always known bits and pieces of their actions, since I have several family members employed there, but after watching the program on TV last night, I am very seriously, considering doing my shopping elsewhere. They are handy and have most anything a person could ever need, but at whose cost.If you have that store in your area, perhaps you would be interested in Googling Wal-Mart..The High Cost of Low Prices.It is mind boggling.
Love it! I have a 19 year old son so this post speaks to me ;]
@Sue from Ky., regarding Walmart, I feel the same way. I haven’t stopped shopping there completely, but as the garden has kicked into high gear and I now get almost all my other foods from a local “food shed” buying club, I find I only have to go to Wally World for a few things maybe once a month instead of every week.
When I am there, I’m seeing some tell-tale signs that they’re in trouble too. Long lines because very few checkouts are open (no matter what time of day) and they don’t want to hire, plus a fair amount of empty shelf space too. Items will be out of stock for weeks – and this was a Big Box that used to pride itself on its superb inventory control.
The more I hear/see about Apple, the more negative my impression becomes as well. They’re geniuses at marketing to their fan-boys, but if you step back, there’s some highly questionable business ethics there.
Score one for Dad! I have a daughter in marketing/media and she now sees through a lot of the tripe in advertising products etc. Bless!
Cheers – Joolz
Yay! Way to go Megan!
Well done Gavin & Megan. Bravo!
classic 🙂
(eta the word verification for this post was ‘bysnot’ lol)