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?