

Buying shampoo: A cautionary tale about the failure of marketing - bouncingsoul
http://www.andyrutledge.com/buying-shampoo.php

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joezydeco
I think it's funny that the marketing is the product now and not even the
material inside?

Ever look at the back of a generic equivalent of a shampoo now? You see
something like this (and read carefully):

 _This product is not manufactured or distributed by BigCorp, distributors of
BigBrand Shampoo"_

Okay, so I'm guessing BigCorp doesn't even make their own shampoo anymore
either. It's all made in the same plant and everyone just brands it what they
want.

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barber
A consumer who is proud that he can run on autopilot through a store, guided
by brand association rather than rational thought? And proud of it? We have
truly entered the next phase of consumerism.

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paulgb
I don't think it's about autopilot so much as (shampoo) brands missing a
market. As a student, I'm an extremely scrupulous grocery shopper. I compare
every item by price per unit, and ignore the pretty pictures on the label
because I know they are faked anyway.

When I'm shopping for shampoo, I feel just like the guy in the article. My
heuristic now is to buy the largest, plainest looking bottle. But I still have
to wade through dozens of bottles of specialty shampoos before I can find one
that I want. ("Dry Hair" -- do I have dry hair? I don't know. It doesn't
_feel_ wet. "Natural Shine"? Is shiny hair _natural_?)

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rue
Hair is naturally shiny if it is not dry.

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JacobAldridge
If you just don't care - and it seems to me that when the OP makes purchasing
decisions, he just doesn't care about a range of things - then all the
marketing in the world won't help. I mean, if you don't take notice of the
bottle from whence you apply stuff directly to your head several times a week,
are you really going to take more notice to the same bottle on television or
in a magazine?

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techiferous
The shampoo aisle looks different if you have long hair.

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aphyr
I'm surprised he knew what brands of running shoes or tomato sauce he wanted.
Confronted with a selection of functionally identical boxes at the supermarket
or shoe store, I frequently stand stymied for several minutes.

Eventually I realize that there is no efficient choice possible on the basis
of packaging, and resort to making selections by unit price--or choosing a
randomly distributed sample in hopes of remembering the results.

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mos1
For tomato sauce, I use the ingredients list to differentiate.

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barber
Which is also something you might want to consider when buying Shampoo.

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dcx
I think we're interpreting this wrongly - this sounds like a piece of satire
about consumerism and how marketing companies see their job and consumers.
"Marketing trumps product quality, consumers operate solely on impulse, are
insecure and clueless and don't care about price. It's Marketing's job to tell
consumers what they need, without us they are lost!"

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param
I look at ads to know what products are available (i.e. not at all), and then
always buy the store's own brand. I can never tell the difference from usage,
and its way cheaper

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gnosis
When I shop for shampoo I look for two things: unscented, cheap as possible.

What cares what brand it is?

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sliverstorm
caring what brand it is helps when you have a hundred different kinds of
shampoo to pick from. So me. I care what brand.

That said, all I want from the brand is to know they make decent shampoo that
does the job without poisoning me, and offer unscented cheap shampoo. Their
brand is simply a way for me to identify an easily locatable subset of shampoo
that I can trust will posses a bottle meeting my desires.

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jseifer
I wonder if he's ever tried to buy orange juice.

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aaronbrethorst
Tropicana branding disaster:
[http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/pepsi_ta...](http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/pepsi_takes_the_tropic_out_of.php)
and
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/business/media/23adcol.htm...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/business/media/23adcol.html)

