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.
He is so wrong; I wish he had worked for every competitor to every company I ever worked for.
Would've made my job (advertising) a cakewalk.
Government has a 100% profit margin without doing anything. That’s why they don’t and won’t ever understand the free market...
There won’t be too many 52 inch plasmas going out the door once folks are socked hard to the tune of $4 to $5 thousand annually for the jacked up premiums and deductibles.
Discretionary income? A thing of the past, since the Nanny doesn’t think we deserve to be able to spend our money as we see fit. No, we have to have their crap insurance.
1. I am still free to buy or not buy a Costco membership and to buy items from other stores when I don't need to buy in bulk. Obamacare allows no such options.
2. When I buy in bulk from Costco, I buy for myself and can stick the extra cans of pop in the basement. I don't give them to someone else to drink for now with the promise that that members in the future will buy me a case when I need them in the future.
3. If Costco screws up, they go out of business. When Obamacare screws up it will just get bigger and bigger unless the Republicans find a spine and fight it to destroy it rather than just delaying it for a year.
4. Costco isn't sneaking in and grabbing an extra trillion dollars from my 1040 form.
5. Costco doesn't have the choice of just killing me if it decides that the price for my pop is too low in the future and it isn't worth it to them to sell to me.
From what I can find he’s a 28 year old public school teacher in either San Diego or Winston-Salem.
LOL! Great visual!
Monster cables and the insurance on that big screen which you probably don’t need since most electronics last many many years way beyond the extended warranty!!!
Ugh! No concept of what real marketing is at all. This article is all projection. Middle tier lefties really think selling is about deception if a professional salesman does it, but about overcoming irrational objections by force if a lefty does it. Neither is true. Sure, there is FUD marketing (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), and there are used car salesmen.
But the best marketers I know are real good listeners. I’m talking millionaires I personally know. The art of selling big is understanding what your customer really wants and/or needs. You don’t get past the objections by force, i.e., by trying to compel the prospect to see how your products features are so great they should just drop their objections and buy. Basically, arguing instead of selling. That’s inherently coercive. People don’t like to be coerced, and they instinctively know when they’re being pushed against their will.
That’ll work on a few folks, but the best sales people don’t coerce. They want genuinely happy customers at the end of the day. It’s good for business. So instead of arguing with you they get you to invite them inside your head so they can learn to see the world exactly the way you see it. It’s rational empathy. They draw you to their product because at some point in the conversation, you can honestly see that product meeting your needs better that any thing else out there. You act, not because you were irrationally impelled like some animal to take some clever bait, but because you rationally and rightly concluded, with minimal assistance from the salesman, that this product really is the right choice for you.
And if the salesman doesn’t have the right product, you don’t buy, and the best salesmen won’t sell you what doesn’t address your real needs. The inherent narcissism of the left prevents them from understanding that you might be making a rational choice to reject their defective product. And it prevents them utterly from seeing your needs the way you do. That’s why they always end up at coercion. They really can’t sell.
Do these mentally ill LIB writers wer themselves when they write such tripe? Enquiring minds want to know.
“Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need that plasma TV.”
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Contrary to your belief, I don’t own a TV and I don’t want to own a TV.
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“Yet today, you’re going to go out and try to buy it anyway.”
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Are you kidding? Watching Obama tank the economy, you think I’m out shopping for luxury items?????
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“As millions of shoppers venture out today to brave the hoards of people buying unnecessary household items,”
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That’s a fair count of the number of people who don’t realize their medical insurance through their employer is in jeopardy.
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“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. “
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How could all those people be unaware of the largest epic nationwide software FAIL in history? Those able to get as far as shopping for insurance on the site reported that the premiums were far too expensive for them to buy...
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“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.”
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The administration wouldn’t be having this problem if they didn’t attack the rights of the public by making a law to force them to buy insurance. Maybe if the gov didn’t say things like “We have to sign the bill before you can see it”
things might have been different. THeir is no “encouraging.” There are monetary threats of fines if people don’t sign up for overpriced insurance.
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 contrast between what actually happened up to this point and what you fantasize is the real problem is stark and it represents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to liberal contempt for the citizenry - always believing they are parents chastising unwilling children when in fact they are ignorant socialists grasping at the rights of Americans who are reluctant to become indentured servants.
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“The answer lies in Marketing 101.”
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Wrong answer. DO you have any idea just how much lying (i.e., marketing 101) has gone into this trash heap of a lib dream up to this point? It.Is.Not.Working.
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“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.”
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Ah, the ruling class looks down upon the proletariat and has decided the proles are too stupid to make decisions for themselves.
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“The science of marketing is dependent upon human beings acting irrationally, which they almost always do.”
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There’s that shopworn old canard about the proles “voting against their best interests.” I remember Hillary saying something about redistributing our wealth for us even though we don’t like it. And Obama too. We are supposed to WANT people to take our money and give it to someone else. We’re supposed to WANT the government to release “purchasing requirements” to the public to let us know what we have to buy - it’s like back to school shopping....
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“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.”
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Missed the concept. It’s not because they want to feel good about themselves, it’s because they will save money and won’t have to purchase more product for awhile if they stock up in advance. Or are they really suggesting prole-shoppers will actually force themselves to drink more soda per day because it was free?
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“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.”
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Think he’s wrong about this too. Costco does offer discounts in bulk - again the writer suggests that there is no cost or effort savings in stocking up. However, I think the genius in Costco is that show you what “you’re missing out on.” I start thinking a 14 foot long glass patio table with teak chairs etc. is convenient and within easy financial and transportation reach instead of continuing to use and enjoy the little bistro table and lawn chairs I already own. Just my opinion.....
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“The question then becomes how to take this business model and apply it to the Affordable Care Act.”
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Wrong question. The government over reached and played the socialized medicine hand poorly. No amount of marketing is going to lower the prices or re-instate the cancelled insurance plans.
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“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.”
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Nope. The ACA is well on it’s way to it’s primary goals 1) padding voter registration rolls so the next power grab will be easier 2) collapsing the health system in an attempt to convert freedom into socialism. There is no “best deal for them.” There is the lesser of a a few evils which will permit them to see even fewer doctors and have fewer benefits.
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“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.”
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Tell that to all the people who’ve had their plans canceled while the “new plans” are too expensive and the website can’t handle payments in time to start the insurance in January. It’s offensive the way the writer hints that the only reason some don’t have insurance right now is a preference for TV’s and cookware.
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“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?”
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Threats? Intimidation? Laws requiring them to make purchases they don’t want and paying fines if they misbehave? Hey, what do you mean “they should purchase something they won’t immediately need?” Are they just supposed to purchase something they don’t need in order to make Obama “feel good” about himself?
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“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.”
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Your marketing campaign is getting off to a rocky start — maybe you should focus so much on insulting the target population?
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“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.”
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Sounds like it’s working for them just fine. They had insurance up through age 26 and no catastrophic medical costs - what’s the problem? Why should they spontaneously want to start paying thousands of dollars for a different insurance plan now, one that covers less?
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“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.”
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“Living in the moment...” Is that like being young, healthy and have few encumbrances? Is that now wrong? Should I look forward to hearing about a bill defining laws and fines for “living in the moment” and will Pelosi snarl “We have to sign the bill before you can read it!”
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“How do you sell a product to people who don’t need it?”
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But you were just trying to imply that they need it but because they were “living in the moment” they were unaware that they need it! Now you are admitting they don’t need it! Sneering at shoppers for buying big screen TV’s they don’t need and then sneering at them for not buying overpriced insurance they don’t need! MAKE up your MIND! Are the proles stupid for shopping or stupid for not shopping?!
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“Simple: By using Black Friday techniques.”
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But you were just heaping contempt on the proles for not seeing beyond the Black Friday discount (money they saved) versus the actual cost of the item they don’t need! Now you want them to focus on the discount (subsidies) on insurance and not the actual cost of the overpriced insurance you just said they don’t need????
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“In order to sell health insurance, the Obama Administration needs to instill a sense of urgency for millennials.”
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Did the writer even read this part? “In order to sell health insurance....” Hasn’t Obama debased the office of the presidency enough, now we are reading about his strategies for selling insurance? Is the president making commission on this??
Besides. Isn’t threatening the proles with fines his big “sense of urgency” tactic??
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“They need to convince them that purchasing health insurance is a matter of life and death.”
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You just admitted they don’t need it and now you are saying the president needs to convince them it is a matter of life and death? Lie to them? This MUST be commission sales! It’s gotta be!
And you were ridiculing people for not understanding the difference between wants and needs...before you start urging the administration to intentionally distort the issue.
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“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:”
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Hard to say anymore, under this administration, what is parody and what is mimicry.
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“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.”
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Don’t hate the young. We were all invincible (young) once. That system worked for them. Those weren’t the people who couldn’t get insurance - they were the people who didn’t USE insurance. And those insulting, stupid advertisements showing young people engaged in risky activities such as doing keg stands or drinking beer on the golf course does NOT resemble your target audience whom you claim are on the cusp of starting their own families or or, if you are to be believed, spending all their disposable income on TV’s and cookware (cookware???). Maybe those commercials should feature evil cookware businesses fleecing unsuspecting young people? Luring them into buying saucepans they DON’T NEED!
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“These are the techniques the Obama Administration should be utilizing.”
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That and a clown car, face paint, and the ability to twist long balloons into animal shapes.
Notice that Obama’s administration doesn’t rise above this kind of tactic in this author’s eyes. The author believes low down distortion and manipulation are “go to” resources for this president!
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“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.”
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Wait! Wait! You were just talking about targeting people doing keg stands and drinking on the golf course! Not people on the brink of major life events!Make.Up.Your.Mind
Oh, and why didn’t you include the lewd commercial featuring a young lady who is excited that ACA will give her all the free healthcare she needs in order to live a completely promiscuous lifestyle?
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“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.”
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Guilt? But I thought fines were the big “go to” technique here. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to show older folks with these costs and using guilt to get the young to WANT to pay for the old? Hey! Yeah! THAT WILL DO IT! Instead of getting the young to falsely believe they need to pay thousands of dollars for medical needs they don’t have, let’s get them to want to pay for the diseases the older folks DO have!
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“Like Black Friday, these ads need to convince an entire population of people that they absolutely, positively need the item being sold.”
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Lie like every day is Black Friday? That’s your big helpful hint? Deceive the way the “mark up in order to mark it down” types are doing for Black Friday? But you were so contemptuous of those who fell for that sort of marketing! Besides - that’s the technique Obama used to get into this mess, I don’t see how digging faster will help get him out.
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“Only in this case, the item for sale is much more valuable than a plasma TV.”
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Paying thousands of dollars for medical services they won’t need, year after year, will be of more value to millennial then buying a TV, which costs a fraction of one year’s premium, and that they actually use? I think you need to step back from Marketing 101 and maybe look into something a little more remedial.
So sorry...should have been “wet” themselves.
The author: https://sites.google.com/a/colemantech-high.com/lafauci2011/home
Imagine what he teaches his students in school? Brainwashing children to be marxists should be punishable by time in Cuba.
Kinda sums it up.....but here's the kicker.
In politics, it's OK for a pol to be clever and come up with clever ideas. But pols can't "appear" to be clever. B/c the citizenry equates POLITICAL cleverness with deviousness. (George Will on Fox)
I sure hope he's not teaching any marketing classes.
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