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Saturday, February 8, 2014

Ze Art of DECEPTION

Hi readers! (I doubt I have much)

It's been a while yea i know i know yada yadaa...my schedule is hectic yada yada. this semester i'm teaching Form 4 students so you know how busy a teacher is, unless you still think a teacher only lies and basks in the sun.

But today that's not my topic. I had an a-ha moment a few minutes ago when I was preparing my breakfast. The thought passed through my mind out of the blue and I think I should share it.

Did you notice that whenever you contemplate on products, there are some that have something like "Award-winning Product" or "As seen on TV" or "Low Calories" or "Cashmere Coat made from true cashmere" or  "Low salt" or "the slimming chillies are imported from French" on the products, making you believe that the products are WOW-THEY-ARE-GOOD.


Actually, what the marketers and sales executives are doing to us the ignorant consumers is actually the art of DECEPTION. they think they can gain profits and attract buyers by doing so (and they actually did. i ended up buying products with those doubtfully true statements). and sometimes they just state whatever appealing features of the products, no matter how obvious or direct, and make it compelling for instance:

"A revolution in sizing, fit and thinking. Slimming side seams & subtle boot cut flatter your shape. A reverse yoke lifts the seat. Vertical back pockets are proportioned to make the most of your assets and a contour waistband means these jeans won’t gap in the back"

"This rare Chinese tea is carefully picked by specially trained monkeys in a remote mountain region of China. Legend has it that monkeys were first used to collect tea ten centuries ago, because upon seeing it’s master trying to reach some tea growing wild on a mountain face, the monkey climbed up the steep face and collected the tea growing there and brought it down to his master"

"Specially formulated with Red Chilli Extract imported from France, the XXX chilli firming range products have thermal heating properties which help enhance circulation and body contouring when massaged onto your skin".

These are highly compelling descriptions however, if you take off the consumer's shoes for a while and wear the critical thinker's hat, you will be able to see how obvious, unnecessarily redundant the descriptions are. They just rephrase, for instance "this pants have two pockets, a zip, rooms for butts, slim design to fit any skinny thighs but not the large ones" and certain obvious features of the products into a more flowery and compelling statement. Well, well done to that! That got me most of the time. Not all of the descriptions are true. Less fat doesn't truly mean less. If brand X has 25g of fat, brand Y with "less fat" label might have 24g fat, which is obviously lesser than the other however the difference is almost indiscernible. Gold bracelet doesn't mean 100 % gold. Cashmere coat is not necessarily cashmere if the label says 5 percent cashmere and 90 percent polyester.

Those marketers are not 100% at fault . They just want to attract buyers and gain enough money to pay for everyone who works in the company and their factories in China. But be careful dear buyers, don't be like me. Don't be like Rebecca Bloomwood. 
Don't fall directly for the blatant and CAPTAIN OBVIOUS descriptions. Not all products are bad but make sure you don't accidentally trust and buy a bad product because of the deceitful, seemingly true descriptions.

Have a nice day!


Yours truthfully,
Pinku no Ichigo Yuki


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