Blog #1 – Testimony Of A Doubtful Consumer.

Comm 296 has been revealing to me all the behind-the-scene secrets for the questions I started having recently as to why companies are becoming “so nice” to consumers. For example, services such as extended warranties, free product replacement/repair and producing new products that are more specified at a need for a cheaper price. I always thought that marketing was a scam to capture consumers to the brand just to make a sale, like in the product concept where companies mass produce a product and convince consumers that it is the best. But now I know they’re aiming for something even deeper through the marketing concept.

Marketers/companies are trying to acquire my entire lifetime-loyalty so that I’d not only purchase their product when I have a problem to solve, but to keep coming back to the same brand every single time and even maybe purchase another product for solving my other needs/problems.

To illustrate, during the winter of Vancouver, I needed a good jacket to keep me warm. The first brand I thought of was The North Face because my friend had a backpack from that brand and kept bragging about it’s functionality and looks. The North Face mainly specialized in winter clothing, so I assumed their jackets must be even better! I was right. I bought a down jacket, the “Diez” model, even though it was quite expensive and I LOVED It. The jacket is amazingly light and also keeps me surprisingly warm too, not to mention their lifetime warranty for defects in materials/workmanship.

Since then, I’ve always gone back to The North Face to solve my winter-clothing problems and I have been unconsciously demonstrating consumer-generated marketing by recommending it to all my friends and family. Unknowingly, the brand caught me, and converted me into an advertisement.Therefore, the main thing I’ve learned is that companies offer a product of value to me and then they’d reap a value back, which are long term profits(consumer equity) and even create consumer-generated marketing. So “being nice” isn’t a scam to increase sales. Companies are building good customer relationships to further increase profits in the long-run.