A Wider Perspective

Last week I fell into the trap of a marketing strategy.  I was picking up a few daily essentials from Superstore by myself, and not having brought any cash with me, my purchase was going to be billed on my debit.  In other words, straight from my savings account.  So being the money cautious university student, every dollar I spent mattered.  I undoubtedly did some serious price comparing.

Unaware of how much my body lotion usually costs, I was appalled at how much my mom usually spends on moisturizer that I use up like water.  I spent a good few minutes contemplating whether I should wait for a sale, and trying to decipher which bottle size would be a better deal.  My eyes scanned and without much wandering, landed on a medium sized bottle that was priced at probably HALF the price of what I first saw.  I grabbed the bottle right away and continued with the rest of my shopping.

After amusing myself at the self checkout, I went home.  And as I was packing away my newly bought items at home, I realized that I did not in fact buy Aveeno moisturizer.  Rather, I bought an imposter brand that looked pretty much exactly the same – the bottle shape, the colour, the layout of the label.  Basically, everything other than the company name was exactly identical to the Aveeno brand I’m used to purchasing.

And again, being the time poor university student, I gave the bottle to my mom for her to use, and she bought me the real Aveeno bottle, at full price.  The traps we all fall into…