My mind became free of the ridiculous notion of European beauty standards when I realized this fundamental fact.
Let’s say I’m trying to sell a product. I come up with a type of soft drink called Fizzy Pop.
My competitor has a product called Soda Hero.
Now let’s say I have a 20 million dollar advertising budget for Fizzy Pop while my competitor has a 1 million dollar advertising budget for Soda Hero.
We have two products that are both being sold as equally desirable on their own merits but only one of the products, Fizzy Pop has a 20 million dollar advertising budget.
So because I have the ability to pay for advertising and commercials to put my product at the forefront. This affects people’s preferences for my product.
“Hello John, we are conducting a survey on which soft drink is better which do you prefer Fizzy Pop or Soda hero?”
Because John has been exposed to Fizzy Pop through the inundation of the media image through my larger advertising budget he says, “Oh definitely Fizzy pop!”
“Okay John could you explain to me why you like Fizzy Pop over the other product?”
This is when John starts saying things like, “Well I don’t know it just tastes better..”
You see John is unable to critically think through all the commercials he saw as a kid that he doesn’t even remember selling him Fizzy pop.
John is unable to pinpoint and dissect the media machine that went into John’s simple statement of his preference.
“John could you elaborate on exactly why you like Fizzy Pop better ?”
“I don’t know I’ve always liked Fizzy pop it’s just my preference it’s just what I like..”
I as a shrewd businesswoman have a problem.
Because while most people have answers similar to John preferring Fizzy Pop over my competitor they couldn’t tell my why?
What’s even worse is that some of the people I surveyed didn’t prefer one over the other. Many said they felt neutral.
So I came up with an idea. I would eliminate my competitor with my financial resources and by running a smear campaign on Soda hero.
I began to run ads where every time Soda hero appeared in the media it was next to a negative ugly undesirable image.
“People that drink soda hero are lazy”
“People that drink soda hero are criminals.”
“Fizzy pop cans are designed better and with superior carbonation”
“Soda hero carbonation standards is inferior to our Fizzy pop method.”
I conduct the survey again.
“Hey Alan, we are conducting a survey on which soft drink is better which do you prefer Fizzy Pop or Soda hero?”
Alan answers, “Obviously Fizzy Pop.”
Most of the people I surveyed answered as expected.
I continue to climb in profits and my advertising budget.
Yet, still to my confusion Soda Hero continues to sell as well. Not as much and with a significantly lower advertising budget and “Soda Hero Representation in the media” but still selling ?
I come up with another plan .
It’s so obvious I’ll appropriate oops I mean copy Soda Hero’s method! Then I will sell it as Fizzy pop so I can grab both markets!
I now have a trillion dollar advertising budget that I have accumulated since the 1930s. It’s now 2021 and Soda Hero has just 300 million in media representation.
But still selling ?!
How can this be after 70 years of a monetary advantage as well as numerous smear campaigns run on Soda Hero ?
Now I ask you my critically thinking audience which company had the superior product ?
