Posted on 11/29/2013 9:24:55 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need that 52″ plasma TV.
Yet today, you’re going to go out and try to buy it anyway.
As millions of shoppers venture out today to brave the hoards of people buying unnecessary household items, millions more are sitting at home, either unaware or unconcerned that for the first time in their lives they have the opportunity to purchase affordable health care insurance. The contrast behind the two ideas is stark and it represents the massive challenge that the Obama Administration faces in encouraging millions of Americans to sign up via the online and state-based health care exchanges. How do you convince an entire population of consumers that they actually need something when they have such a distorted view of what is actually necessary in today’s society?
The answer lies in Marketing 101.
For the millions of people that go out and shop today in person, the concept of wants versus needs essentially takes a backseat for what they perceive to be a limited opportunity to purchase an item for a reduced price. The kind of people that shop on Black Friday don’t see the idea that they’re spending $800 on a television, they instead see the idea that they’re saving $200 on a television. They don’t realize that the television itself probably cost $50 to assemble and is originally marked up to a ridiculous level before this temporary mark down. All these consumers see in the immediate impact that they can purchase an item for a significantly lower price than they could otherwise.
The science of marketing is dependent upon human beings acting irrationally, which they almost always do. When consumers go out shopping to the local grocery store, they don’t need four twelve packs of soda. However, when they can buy three and get the fourth one free, they are more likely to purchase that unnecessary twelve-pack in order to feel good about themselves. This same business model is what makes Costco so successful. Members pay a yearly membership in order to get access to discounted prices throughout the store. However, the genius in the Costco business model is that the items sold throughout the store are sold in bulk. Members know that they are getting lower prices relative to other stores and therefore don’t mind buying items in huge quantity in order to ensure they are getting the best deal on the item they are purchasing.
The question then becomes how to take this business model and apply it to the Affordable Care Act. After all, the ACA is designed to be one giant Black Friday for health insurance by essentially giving 48 million people the opportunity to shop around the virtual marketplace and select the deal that is best for them and their family. Instead of superfluous items like televisions and cookware, this marketplace sells health insurance which can literally mean life or death for the 45,000 people who die from a lack of health care each year in this country. How does the Obama Administration help convince these 48 million Americans, including millions of healthy millennials needed this first year, that they should purchase something they won’t immediately need?
There is no simple answer to this question; however, the Obama Administration would be wise to use some of these marketing techniques to reach out to the targeted population: millennials. Millennials as a whole are a very self-centered and self-sufficient generation. Many of them are on the cusp of starting their own families and up to this point have not had to consider how their own individual decisions might affect those close to them. Many of them have been on their parents’ insurance up to age 26 and have not had any catastrophic health injuries or issues up to this point in their lives. For a generation that is accustomed to living in the moment and not beyond, it is a foreign concept to them to purchase health insurance for something that might happen down the road, especially if they are currently healthy.
How do you sell a product to people who don’t need it? Simple: By using Black Friday techniques. In order to sell health insurance, the Obama Administration needs to instill a sense of urgency for millennials. They need to convince them that purchasing health insurance is a matter of life and death. Last month, The Daily Show did a tongue-in-cheek piece on how the Obama Administration was doing a poor job selling the ACA. To spice things up, they had Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame do a public service announcement about needing insurance in case of injuries. The ad was clearly a parody, but it struck a nerve: Millennials often do think they’re invincible. About three weeks later, a Colorado ad for ‘Brosurance’ appeared and was designed to convince young millennials to sign up for health insurance online using Colorado’s state-run health exchange system by showing friends engaged in risky activities such as doing keg stands or drinking beer out on the golf course.
These are the techniques the Obama Administration should be utilizing. Millennials are not invincible but need to be reminded of this. There needs to be a nationwide marketing blitz showcasing millennials on the brink of major life events: Graduating from college, starting a new job, getting married, and having kids. With each ad should be the price of a major surgery or operation for someone who is not covered by health insurance. This should include possible workplace accidents, surgeries, operations, diseases, and even cancer. These ads need to make millennials think long and hard about the risks they place upon themselves and their loved ones by not having health insurance. Like Black Friday, these ads need to convince an entire population of people that they absolutely, positively need the item being sold.
Only in this case, the item for sale is much more valuable than a plasma TV.
When you get one SO wrong, there can be no credibility:
They don’t realize that the television itself probably cost $50 to assemble and is originally marked up to a ridiculous level before this temporary mark down.I have been in consumer electronics since 1977 and know that TVs have so little mark-up that if that was all you sold, you would be out of business in no time. There are many sales where the dealer makes more profit on the "Monster" cable he talked you into than on the $1000 TV he practically gave away.
People like the author imagine that all capitalism is a huge “scam” where the greedy merchants and industrialists pick the bones of the working class and cackle as they fill the bathtub with $100 bills and writhe like a dervish.
It’s all wrong, IMHO.
Insurance, health or otherwise only seeks to forestall the inevitable.
I expect to die. When the Lord sees fit...
Shoot me in the head- if it’s not my time to go I won’t.
Tap me on the shoulder when my time has come I’ll leave.
Trying to sell some false promise as “health insurance”.., longevity, etc...I’ll do it for my family-because I won’t subject them to my radical beliefs without consent.
But- it doesn’t change your date with destiny.
I didn't stand in line to buy anything today. Are you gonna fine me for not participating? Try to make that sound good, too.
“Millennials as a whole are a very self-centered and self-sufficient generation.”
And really, really do not want anyone telling them what they have to do with their own money.
-— the television itself probably cost $50 to assemble and is originally marked up to a ridiculous level before this temporary mark down. -—
The stupid, it hurts.
I’d love to see a liberal bring anything to market.
A bit fatalistic.
Well, yeah.
Got not much to lose when I charge San Juan Hill, then, do I?
What little money they have, thanks to Obozo's horrible economy.
That’s one way to look at it. I’m getting there, myself. This is all a dream.
I had a buddy that worked with Teledyne Waterpik back when they invented the Waterpik Shower Massage™.
It was, without a doubt, the absolute must have product if you were a retailer...and you'd better not be a penny over $19.99.
Problem was that the wholesale price was $21.50.
My buddy would try to bemoan his retailer's problem (behind his crocodile tears) and joked that they could make it up with "volume".
Watch, Obama will throw in a free iPad and a toaster oven
That is what that Young Invincible Website tries to do, convince them that an accident is just waiting to bankrupt them tomorrow so they better sign up to pay ASAP.
Also Black Friday is about marking UP current prices by 100% then claiming its a 50% off sale from those high prices.
Problem for Obama is that people still remember what they paid BEFORE Obamacare. When they believe that the Obamacare prices are the real ones and any subsidy against it is a gift from Obama then its big trouble,
Hey man, look at this cool insurance card I have in my wallet!
I hope I never have to use it, even though it cost me an arm and a leg.
The Obamacare Black Friday is kind of Black Friday in reverse, especially for millennials. The Obamanoughts are trying to sell a product that the young buyers don’t want at three times the price that they could have bought it for last year. Somehow I don’t think this is going to cause a stampede at the front door of Obamamart.
I thought they mastered this.
People waiting for hours and hours for a web site to respond, only to error out, and not get anything. ;-)
How do you support a multi-trillion takeover of 1/6 of the economy when people don't need it?
I worked outside sales for a carbide cutting tool manufacturer. One of the largest in the world. A 5% profit margin was considered good...
Other than not having a product that people want and costing two to three time as much, I’d say they’ve dang near got this private sector marketing stuff all figured out.
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