The graphic pretty much says it all. Consumer spending is a frightenly large part of our economy. When we slow our buying Wall Street shudders.
So the producers of consumer goods hire expert marketing firms to press every one of our buying buttons. It's scary how well these companies know us. What aromas, what slogans, what colors, what graphics seem to trigger our spending.
It's an art form, really. And mega-companies are born and die on consumer whims, the vagaries that are generated and nurtured by the marketing and advertising firms who plumb our psyches.
But there is a revolt afoot. It is fueled by the simple lack of money in our wallets and it is worrying the marketing people. Frugal is in and the tide seems to be going out. This is not good for marketing people and sadly, perhaps a wake-up call for our country as well.
Maybe we should be based on making things and creating ideas instead of building Hummers or importing Gucci purses. Maybe we should try to return to being exporters and not importers. You know, kind of like China is.
PS: sorry for the lapse in articles. We've had problems with Blogspot and are changing to a new format so this doesn't happen again.
No comments:
Post a Comment