Last edited Sun Jul 15, 2018, 03:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Whoever is the most clever sells the most stuff, it seems. Everyone who sells uses sales strategies, so it's impossible to avoid them.

Even the local farmer's market has a strategy, called farm to table, where they sell the same basic produce for more based on the idea that the seller grew it. That's not always the case, of course. We were at a farmer's market a couple of weeks ago, and one of the sellers had papayas and mangos on offer. Now, neither grows here in Minnesota, so they weren't from the seller's farm. Still, people were buying them, based on the concept. Certainly, they were grown somewhere by someone, anyhow. They're cheaper at the supermarket, though.

In my opinion, it's not so much the marketing strategies that matter as much as it is the ethical compass of the seller.

if that doesn't get them to use my services, they can look elsewhere. I tried selling price for years. I stopped that a bit ago, and still have to pull in the reins, but my services are good enough that I can charge a bit more than my competition. I get by. I will never be rich, but that isn't important. I love what I do.

"The Space Merchants?" It was both a brilliant satire of advertising and marketing, as well as a prophetic warning of what was to come. Instead of "Commies" being society's bugaboo, it was environmentalist "Consies". The novel portrayed the perfection of consumer "marketing" in a triad of three addictive products available in vending machines. A candy, which advertising had conditioned people to have a craving for the beverage, which in turn left a craving for a cigarette, each of which contained a physically addictive substance.

when I was 12. I remember it well. I've read it again since then, but discovered that I got it at age 12.

bear out the truth of their premise. BTW, I was born in 1952.