Ok, time for another one of my moan's (anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis will realise that this happens from time to time!).
So, whats my gripe today?......small print!!
Every day we are bombarded with advertisements telling us just how good things are, how they have been improved since the last time they told you, and how, unless you buy this or that product, your life will somehow be "incomplete" or possibly, less fun.
My question is then, how come if things are so great, the manufacturers of anything from shampoo to cars, rely on "hiding" the most interesting facts and figures in "small print"?
Examples ? Ok, how about these.......
Yogurt that "could" help you lose weight...if you eat a healthy diet and exercise more often
Kitchen cleaner "bang and the dirt is gone"...demonstrated as being instant, but look at the bottom of the screen and see that the results shown are actually attained in a much longer time frame.
Cars...oh these are a classic "what you see ain't what you get" example.
Imagine the advert (i am sure you have seen plenty!).A car driving at speed down a mountain pass it's rapid twists and turns throwing up dust and dirt, and it's rapid progress accompanied by a rocking music track .Glistening tinted windows,huge alloys wrapped in low profile tyres, and its luscious curves finished in a gorgeous metallic paint job......well that is the picture you are given, along with a price of...oh lets say £7995 "on the road". The sad fact is that this car that they have decided to hook you with is a far cry from what £7995 will buy you.The small print (yet again at the bottom of the screen) announces, in a font approx 25 times smaller that the one used for the £7995 price tag, that "Model show £10,995"...so why not either show the car that is £7995 in the advert, or perhaps show the top of the range car but this time with it's £10,995 ticket ?
Personally I think that this is yet again an example of dishonest marketing, although i am sure that it would not take the sellers more than a nano second to pipe up "It's all in the small print"!
How about this one. How many times is a price put to you as 399 ,799 or 199...what happened to "£" or "pounds".........are they worried in case the "P" word puts us off of buying.....maybe we should walk in to the shop, stick £3.99 on the counter and ask for the three piece to be delivered next week.I am sure that the suffix of the word "hundred pounds " would not take long to be mentioned at that point !.
Just a few examples of "slick" marketing techniques, but there are a lot more to be seen in a normal days TV viewing......see how many you can spot, and tell me of some examples you have noticed :-)
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