The lemming. That cute, furry little critter that has taken a bad rap and been labeled as a group of suicide rodents. It is true, they have been known to jump off of cliffs or leap into raging rivers, but it isn't because they wish themselves harm. They do this because the guy in front of them did, kind of like a herd mentality. Usually, there are so many, they have no idea what fate lies ahead of them, they just know there are too many to stay in one place and it's time to find a new home and new food source.
This is one subject I never tire of. I sometimes wish I could get a megaphone and shout it from the roof tops. But, alas, it would fall on deaf ears because they are plugged with headphones and completely unaware of what is taking place and unfortunately, they do not seem to care.
The new way to market to the masses is to find out what the masses like. When looking at marketing costs, most companies want to cut their losses and increase profits. That is just good business sense. Gone may be the days of board meetings trying to come up with the most clever TV commercial because the consumer....us....have made it easy for them.
We have cell phones in our faces most of our waking moments. We put devices in our homes that answer questions, play music, make our shopping lists and sit quietly on the counter listening to whatever else we may need to converse about. We spend an enormous amount of quality time on social media sites where we send endless and meaningless quizzes and "games" to each other, hoping someone will jump on board with us and answer the questions. After all, if you answer the next 10 questions, you can find out who you were really meant to be. These may seem harmless, but every time one is filled out, all the information goes into a data base. That base then knows birth dates, favorite food, favorite colors, shoes, clothes, vacation spots, likes and dislikes and the list is absolutely endless.
When a person is on a computer, laptop, tablet, phone or whatever and connected to the internet, there will be advertisements for the very things they may have mentioned in one of the above games or quizzes. Or, the advertisement has come from something they have talked about inside their home. You know, that place where you are supposed to feel safe and secure, but you have that device on the end table that will play your favorite song, without you having to lift a finger.
Now, this multi media marketing seems to be taking another step forward into our ever shrinking rights of privacy. The other evening, our friend came over to visit for awhile. We sat around the table and spoke of the confusing nature of the health care field. Since a couple of people in this group were 65+ , the Medicare subject came up and we discussed which plans a person should have. The next morning, our friend contacted me. They had received a phone call, from an insurance agent, that they did not know. The agent told them that he had 'heard' they were looking for a certain Medicare plan.
Folks, that should make a person feel a bit violated because that information was merely brought up in conversation. A conversation that took place with our phones sitting on the table and somehow, some way, the data included our friends' phone number. I'm still wondering how it knew to call the right person, but maybe I do not really want to know the answer.
So, now what? Do we continue to give out all of our hopes and dreams in the chance that some company will deliver it to our door? Do we really believe this is all for consumerism? Perhaps it is, but what are they doing with the information that has nothing to do with our purchases? What happens when they decide to put us into groups because of the way we believe, or the ideas we might have to make the world a better place? Will we find ourselves like the lemmings, following the guy in front of us?
No comments:
Post a Comment