According to this Times article, people are dong more and buying less thanks to the recession. Or, as this Florida teenager figured out, you can have it both ways - pay to ride waves at the local mall.
"Tired" seems to sum up how most people are feeling about the closing decade. Especially if you read Paul Krugman's article The Big Zero . "...the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing."
I'm not sure if piggy backing is a bonafide marketing practice, but it should be. Here's a good example (it's been around since '08 so I'm admittedly a bit late):
The people at ColaLife want to piggy back on Coca Cola's distribution network - surely one of the most expansive in the world. Their idea is to deliver medical aid to poorer parts of the world using an aidpod stuffed inside cola cases.
It's also a great opportunity for Coca Cola to use its corporate infrastructure for social good - and deliver on the 21st Century marketing promise of making people's lives better.
A friend of mine sent me a story from CNN's website and I noticed it came with the headline "I just saw it on CNN." The "I just saw it on" part felt a bit odd, like he wanted me to read it right away. So I sent myself a different story from CNN, and sure enough it also came with the headline "I just saw it on CNN."
CNN must be feeling pressure from instant news sources like Twitter and trying to stay relevant by creating a sense of urgency with their news stories.
BTW, creating energy from food scraps? Doc Brown's flux capacitor has to be behind that.
This marketing idea reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when George and Jerry pitch their idea to NBC: a show about nothing.
Of course, the show never really was about nothing. And neither is this cleaning product from Arm & Hammer. The tiny bottle shrink-wrapped to the big one is filled with liquid concentrate cleaning agent. (The big one in the picture is empty). The user adds his own water from home.
This is a good idea actually. But it is a bit startling to see an empty bottle for sale on the retail shelf. And more shocking to see how little cleaning agent is actually used in detergent. It makes you think about how much water we are shipping around the world at huge expense and environmental cost. I imagine this is an interim packaging solution for Arm & Hammer. Putting the tiny bottle of concentrate on the shelves by itself might be a bit too big of a leap for consumers to make.
Better to condition them that changes are coming and gradually make them more comfortable with buying less. There is also a practical reason to sell the big empty bottle along with it. Most people buy a new bottle after they've thrown out the old one. So if you did want to buy the concentrate you'd need to have saved your old bottle at home before heading to the store.
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