Oh, those marketers!

[catherine]

I was talking to my son this morning while he was having breakfast before work. He took out the Trop50, which is a Tropicana line extension. It's got 50% fewer calories and less sugar--but it also has less juice! It's like of like a Tropicana Lite--almost an uncarbonated Orangina.

How clever--charge the same price for half the product!

It reminds me of the relatively new 100 calorie serving snack packets--they've made the snacks smaller, but they charge the same.

I can just see the marketers in a brainstorming session saying, "Let's capitalize on this health/obesity thing! Let's give the customers LESS and charge them MORE, and they'll actually THANK us for it!"

Any other examples of clever marketing that gets us to think they're doing us a favor when they're really ripping us off?

[ApatheticNoMore]

Or alternatively: "Costs creeping up, what can we do to maintain profit margins? We could raise prices, but marketing studies show this won't work very well in this economic climate when everyone is already pinching Lincoln pretty hard. We can always do the common trick of reducing serving sizes, but people are on to that trick and starting to feel scammed. How can we do it without provoking that backlash? :idea:"

[Square Peg]

And of course, with the 100 calorie packs, you get the benefit of more packaging!!

[loosechickens]

Flavored water.........

[Alan]

It reminds me of the relatively new 100 calorie serving snack packets--they've made the snacks smaller, but they charge the same.

I can just see the marketers in a brainstorming session saying, "Let's capitalize on this health/obesity thing! Let's give the customers LESS and charge them MORE, and they'll actually THANK us for it!"

Any other examples of clever marketing that gets us to think they're doing us a favor when they're really ripping us off?

It seems that the 100 calorie packs are quite popular with people who don't trust themselves to stop snacking on their own. In that sense, the manufacturers are giving people exactly what they want. I would consider it to be less marketing and more servicing the market's desires.

[peggy]

individually wrapped prunes...now what is THAT all about!

[Zoebird]

i thought the individually wrapped prunes was hilarious.

honestly, when we juice (which is rare), i always cut it. One shot of juice and the rest water. Seems obvious.

[Stella]

I saw juice boxes that were half juice half water, but the same price as the regular ones.

I have also seen "microwave baked potatoes" which are just potatoes individually wrapped in a microwavable plastic wrap. You can microwave any potato.

[Madsen]

Ya AmeriGas got in trouble for this last year --- you know those propane bottle exchange cages? They started filling them to 15lbs instead of 20lbs ... didn't tell anyone, kept the price the same. There was actually a class action lawsuit, where you could get like $2 back per cylinder.

[Square Peg]

I saw juice boxes that were half juice half water, but the same price as the regular ones.



I also saw juice box holders! http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_024W131684110001P?vName=Baby&cName=Feeding&sName=Feeding%20Accessories&sid=KDx20070926x00003a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=024W131684110001P

[benhyr]

You can microwave any potato.

mmmmm, that was dinner tonight.

Only thing I've noticed is the Iams dog food bags. It used to be a 20 lb bag or 40 lb but they've been slowly downsizing the bags; I assume to sort of hide the inflation rather than raise the price. Now they're finally raising prices as well.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I cut juice when I use it also.


It seems that the 100 calorie packs are quite popular with people who don't trust themselves to stop snacking on their own. In that sense, the manufacturers are giving people exactly what they want. I would consider it to be less marketing and more servicing the market's desires.

I suppose. I mean I confess, when I must ;) buy snacks I will buy the individual pack of potato chips or a single pastry rather than a bag of cookies or big bag of chips, because I don't want any extra of that stuff lying around. If I had 100 calorie packets of junk, I'd just open one after another ..... :)

But on a deeper level the whole "people who don't trust themselves to stop snacking on their own" seems based on false beliefs we have about food in this country. I mean yea, if you have junk around you will snack on it incessantly. But the whole thing is unnecessary. The constant cravings are actually a direct result of the food being junk. Eat real food and you'll be full without eating and eating (then learn not to eat when you aren't hungry of course, that one may be harder but ...). That may or may not achieve anyone's ideal weight depending on genes and whether one's ideal is just a healthy weight or some kind of media perfection but .... it seems to me it will definitely get a lot closer to it than 100 calorie snack packs!! Is anyone actually getting any thinner because of them?