Okay, I couldn’t resist commentary on this one. It’s just too rich in detail to pass by.
The illustrious and respected conservative Mark Sanford of South Carolina gave us all a treat this week with his flight from responsibility and pressure into the arms of an Argentinian mistress, without passing the mantle of government to his most capable lieutenant governor and without even telling his staff where he could be reached. This is the stuff of which operattas are made, and surely we will see a number of them on this very case before the decade is out. The story has all the elements—love, sex, power, betrayal, secrecy, possible misuse of funds, and media excitement and confusion fuging in the background.
I particularly liked the use of the Appalachian Trail as the cover for where he was. It was a stroke of genius so blinding as to be too cute by half. Hiking the Appalachian Trail has an air of macho derring-do about it—an air of solitary wisdom—an air of environmental concern—an air of youthful energy—and an air of relevant hipness--all qualities that the public would most like to have in a presidential candidate. It was such a perfect excuse for a prospective presidential candidate for 2012, in fact, that no one believed it. We all sat around waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it surely did, in the form of a separated woman with two sons in Argentina who was evidently good at sending sympathetic emails. Good God. If ever an affair reflected the contorted magic of our technological times it was this one.
Okay, who had ‘Argentinian mistress’ in the ‘Reason for Sanford’s Mysterious Absence’ Pool?
But as the media slobbers over those tantalizing emails, we must not forget that it isn’t the affair itself that is most significant to the character, or lack thereof, of this man at the head of South Carolina. It’s that he so got wrapped up in his own needs and desires, the people and government of South Carolina came a very distant second to him. Adulterers will come and go in this world—so to speak—but not doing the job you are paid to do always deserves a punishment fitting the crime.
So as we wave a fond farewell to Governor Sanford’s political career, let us remember to re-focus ourselves on what is truly important to us as citizens. Not the idle proselytizing of pompous blowhards who believe their own PR a little too much—nor the high moral tone that always turn out to be a bit of a joke--but the actual care and work put into the ‘public service’ of the positions they are elected to do. “We will know them by their fruits’ is one of those biblical phrases Republicans can appreciate. Let’s hope they will live by the phrase in the choice of their leadership.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
The Marketing of the American Consumer
I recently changed from cable to satellite TV. I have no idea why. I guess the dishes I saw installed on roofs intrigued me. Also, I was unhappy with my cable package, and with my cable prices. You would think for $100 a month you could find more to watch than just cable news. Anyway, the satellite dish company had a special, so I called them and a very nice young man came out to install my little dish and explain how my remote worked. I mean, really—he was very thorough about training me in the use of the remote. Lord knows, I need instruction, too. So, anyway, in order to get the good price of the special deal I had to go online and register my rebate. Which I did. But it takes weeks for it to go into effect so I still got the regular bill. Which was mighty close to the amount I used to pay for cable. So, really, I’m not very happy. I’m not a happy satellite customer, so far.
But it called to mind how often we are seduced into these heavily-advertised packages of technology without ever knowing what it is we’re getting or what we’ll end up paying for it. In fact, I asked a friend who just had their satellite TV installed how much it would cost, and he said, ‘Who knows? You know how it is when they set you up with these things.”
It’s true, we don’t know. In fact, that’s the game—to make sure we don’t know. Oh, you can try to find out what you’ll get and how much you’ll pay for it. You’ll ponder the little ‘package comparison’ screens and think you’ve taken control of your satellite TV budgeting. And some slick little 20- or 30-year-old ‘people person’ marketer will be happy to talk on the phone to sign you up for it, but you’ll come away not knowing what you just signed on for. And you won’t have a clue how much they’ll be able to gouge you for it long-term. And you’ll greet the first bill for it with a mixture of horror and admiration for the techniques that put you in this tenuous position.
I’ve been reading up on marketing, and the book said some of the most successful marketing campaigns have been done by keeping customers’ needs in mind at all times and at all levels of the business, from R & D to distribution to advertising. I find this hard to believe. What I WILL believe, however, is that these companies put the ‘perception’ of putting the customer first, first. I think that’s more the truth of what’s being done. The “here, let me help you while I’m picking your pocket’ method of marketing.
At some point, the customer is going to rebel against this ‘bundled’ way of overcharging us. Meanwhile, I will ponder why I can get 17 religious stations in my satellite package when I don’t give a fig about religious programming, or why the good movie channels are all ‘extra.’
I’m sure it’s just me, and I did it wrong. Or is making you feel that way part of the mysterious marketing strategy, too?
But it called to mind how often we are seduced into these heavily-advertised packages of technology without ever knowing what it is we’re getting or what we’ll end up paying for it. In fact, I asked a friend who just had their satellite TV installed how much it would cost, and he said, ‘Who knows? You know how it is when they set you up with these things.”
It’s true, we don’t know. In fact, that’s the game—to make sure we don’t know. Oh, you can try to find out what you’ll get and how much you’ll pay for it. You’ll ponder the little ‘package comparison’ screens and think you’ve taken control of your satellite TV budgeting. And some slick little 20- or 30-year-old ‘people person’ marketer will be happy to talk on the phone to sign you up for it, but you’ll come away not knowing what you just signed on for. And you won’t have a clue how much they’ll be able to gouge you for it long-term. And you’ll greet the first bill for it with a mixture of horror and admiration for the techniques that put you in this tenuous position.
I’ve been reading up on marketing, and the book said some of the most successful marketing campaigns have been done by keeping customers’ needs in mind at all times and at all levels of the business, from R & D to distribution to advertising. I find this hard to believe. What I WILL believe, however, is that these companies put the ‘perception’ of putting the customer first, first. I think that’s more the truth of what’s being done. The “here, let me help you while I’m picking your pocket’ method of marketing.
At some point, the customer is going to rebel against this ‘bundled’ way of overcharging us. Meanwhile, I will ponder why I can get 17 religious stations in my satellite package when I don’t give a fig about religious programming, or why the good movie channels are all ‘extra.’
I’m sure it’s just me, and I did it wrong. Or is making you feel that way part of the mysterious marketing strategy, too?
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The GM Bankruptcy - And How I Love My Buick
I don’t quite understand how this bailout of GM and the subsequent bankruptcy is supposed to work. This is a little over my head, and I only hope the Great Minds know what they’re doing on this. All I know is, I find myself a little bit fearful—kind of a free-floating anxiety—about where I’ll be able to get my cars in the future.
It’s not that I object to getting cars from overseas manufacturers. I’ve had cars from them before, and they’ve been okay cars—not the fabulous bargains of staggering quality they are sometimes portrayed—but okay cars. During the decades that these foreign car producers were making their big gains in the U.S., we took to ‘buying American’ without thinking too much about it. It just seemed right to support American industry. Well, that worked out well. We must have been the only ones supporting it.
Anyway, the reason we kept buying American was because of our Buicks. We bought the first Buick because it offered 0% financing or some fool thing, and cars seemed so expensive at the time that a break in the interest rate was very attractive.
We grew to love our Buick. It was solid, attractive, and reliable—and had that smooth Buick ride on road trips. And I dearly love road trips. A smooth ride is very important when you’re trying to balance a McDonald’s coffee cup and Egg McMuffin early in the morning as you try to beat the rush hour traffic on the way to some pleasant, far-off destination.
We rode that Buick into the ground. And it was very good to us all along they way, with few repairs, and almost no breakdowns along the side of the road that I can remember. The gas gauge did go out—which made road-tripping a matter of intense calculation. And it did cost an enormous amount of money to have it repaired. They had to remove the entire gas tank to get at the gauge mechanism to replace it.
No matter. We bought our second Buick, regardless. And, again, it is being very good to us. I don’t know what surprises it may have for us in the future—a relationship with a car is much like a relationship with a person, you go in with great hope and optimism, and learn to deal with the all the quirks and breakdowns along the way. And as with a relationship, you mourn when you must part. And as with a relationship, some new, flashy item catches your eye and takes your mind off your grief. Ah, the patterns of human existence continue on and on, don’t they?
So for the moment, I love my Buick. I worry that the GM bankruptcy will hamper my purchases in the future. However, I also see that if they could take the quality and reliability of my Buick and graft it onto a hybrid’s environmental benefits, they would really have something. So I’ll wait. With fingers crossed. Hoping the American auto industry will remember to take what they are good at and blend it to what they have been negligent in incorporating.
This could be the start of something big.
It’s not that I object to getting cars from overseas manufacturers. I’ve had cars from them before, and they’ve been okay cars—not the fabulous bargains of staggering quality they are sometimes portrayed—but okay cars. During the decades that these foreign car producers were making their big gains in the U.S., we took to ‘buying American’ without thinking too much about it. It just seemed right to support American industry. Well, that worked out well. We must have been the only ones supporting it.
Anyway, the reason we kept buying American was because of our Buicks. We bought the first Buick because it offered 0% financing or some fool thing, and cars seemed so expensive at the time that a break in the interest rate was very attractive.
We grew to love our Buick. It was solid, attractive, and reliable—and had that smooth Buick ride on road trips. And I dearly love road trips. A smooth ride is very important when you’re trying to balance a McDonald’s coffee cup and Egg McMuffin early in the morning as you try to beat the rush hour traffic on the way to some pleasant, far-off destination.
We rode that Buick into the ground. And it was very good to us all along they way, with few repairs, and almost no breakdowns along the side of the road that I can remember. The gas gauge did go out—which made road-tripping a matter of intense calculation. And it did cost an enormous amount of money to have it repaired. They had to remove the entire gas tank to get at the gauge mechanism to replace it.
No matter. We bought our second Buick, regardless. And, again, it is being very good to us. I don’t know what surprises it may have for us in the future—a relationship with a car is much like a relationship with a person, you go in with great hope and optimism, and learn to deal with the all the quirks and breakdowns along the way. And as with a relationship, you mourn when you must part. And as with a relationship, some new, flashy item catches your eye and takes your mind off your grief. Ah, the patterns of human existence continue on and on, don’t they?
So for the moment, I love my Buick. I worry that the GM bankruptcy will hamper my purchases in the future. However, I also see that if they could take the quality and reliability of my Buick and graft it onto a hybrid’s environmental benefits, they would really have something. So I’ll wait. With fingers crossed. Hoping the American auto industry will remember to take what they are good at and blend it to what they have been negligent in incorporating.
This could be the start of something big.
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