Once upon a time, there was a gasoline called 97. The cost of this item was $1.80. One day, the governing body wanted to increase the price to $2.10. However, the governing body knows that if they simply increase price, that will affect their popularity. Which in turn affect their eligibility to continue to be governing body in next election.
Hence they come up with a perfect idea. They first introduce another brand called 95. Actually this is a much lower quality product than 97. In short, 97 simply means there is at least 97% of pure petrol in the gasoline. On the other hand, 95 only has 95% purity. However, they push out 95 as if it is a better quality product. They even add some 'addictive' into 95 to justify their claim its a better product. It was presented in a way that 95 will replace 97, and stay at the same price at $1.80
More than 90% of the consumer fall for it. Hence the transition of 97 to 95 went through smoothly. Majority of the consumers pay the same price for a lower quality gasoline while thinking they enjoy a great quality petrol. This is the power of marketing ...
A few more months pass by, its about time to gain even more profit. Hence 97 is released to the market again. It was released silently and the price of 97 is $2.10. Now this time they leave it to individual vendor to tell consumer how 97 is better than 95.
16.7% of profit has been gained without a single complain from the public. You have to admit this is a fantastic marketing gimme. Even if you see it coming like I did, even if you wrote letter into the authority request for action taken .... but the majority of the consumers were falling for it, hence there is really nothing you can do about it, like I was, no matter how hard I tried. We just have to admit ... it was a gimme well played.
I waited more than 6 months to release this article. What do you think ? Do you still think this governing body has taken good care of your interest ? Or do you believe this article has some truth ?
