20% More is Less Than You Think, Way Less
Let’s think about advertising for a moment and the ‘20% More’ technique. Having owned a retail store I think about things like advertising, but I always stray away from ‘fuzzy’ promotions, for me it’s bad ethic.
You’ve seen it. It’s often found blazing on the top portion of a potato chip bag – 20% More! Free! Already overpriced, the offer seems pretty good, right? Wrong! This is the biggest pricing cover-up a morally corrupt brand can achieve. And they love it.
Let’s use our noggin in fast forward through the years, 20% more, normal, 20% more, normal, 20% more, normal, 20% more, normal, etc. Isn’t that the cycle of the offer. By my rudimentary calculations a bag of chips, according to that cycle, should weigh over 100 lbs. at this point in history. It’s always 20% more. Are you with me on this one?
Without letting the consumer in on the plan, the product, over time loses 20% of it’s weight and remains at the same general price. And once they slowly get it down, while you’re paying the same. You’ll see an offer, 20% More! Free! And you feel good about it. Don’t!
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Some Basic Math for BP’s Gusher
Today is May 17th. The spew started on April 20, nearly a full month ago.
Here’s where the math comes in. The oil is just coming to shore and it’s been a month since it started diluting the ocean. The BP Oil Spill has not been stopped, so we can estimate that one month from today the oil will be coming to shore that is erupting from the broken pipes now. It will be relentless. It will be consistent. This is serious.
I doubt BP (British Petrolium) has a large enough bank account to pay for such a catastrophe on a world-scale. It’s just too big. They seem to sound confident, but in reality no company would have that much money. It’s too big.
So, what can we look forward to in the near future considering this oil company, bankruptcy. That would be the worst scenario along with other terrible domino effects.
If the cost of oil was going up before the demise of the well, we can only image that it will become inflated as we move forward into this case.
Here is more math coming from the equation: One company should not be allowed to possess that amount of market share, although the stock holders smile at the opportunity, the world is at stake when an error such as this occurs. Life can’t be all business, we’ve got a world out there with people on it at stake.
Please feel free to add common sense by making a comment.
