Re: Kid screamed for his cell phone back
Some time back I read an article that came thru our local Chamber of Commerce.
It discussed the marketing of products: the most sucesfull; the most disasterous.
Data was converted to a scale.
The most sucessful marketing campain "ever" was the 'mobile phone' (cell phone).
It lead the pack by such an extent that the scale had to be adjusted to include it.....meaning it was so far ahead of everything else ever invented, developed and marketed.
What turned from a business comunications tool (remember the big ones, half the size of a brief case), into an item every person in the developed world had to have, was instilling fear in to people.
I can't recall the exact phrase but it went like this "oh! I need one for my security in case.......etc".
I can't quote you the individual who came up with the "fear idea and phrase", but it was a planned strategy, and what was unique about it was, the idea of the 'fear' had to come from the individual, not a advertising campaign.
This created mass sales and profits, but then it occured to the communications companies, there was even more money to be made if they tail-end loaded the cost from the phone (that's the front end) to the cost of the calls.
In other words they reduced the price of the phone but increased the price of the calls.
A few yrs later they decided there was even more money to be extracted from consumers if they introduced fixed price over fixed term...meaning if they could get $40 per month for 2 yrs from 70% of the population, and reduce the costs of each call, then that was the way to go, espceically when once their infrastructure was in place, all they were doing was selling an air wave.
So with respect, for all those that have this in-bred "fear" factor, and believing the mobile phone will eliminate it, you have been had by the big money making machine.
The most unique point about this campaign is: the previous greatest motivating factor was 'greed'.
Cheers
Phillip
