An interesting observation I've made recently is that of application specific branding and marketing in the sale of consumer products. Once upon a time it was possible to simply buy products for what they were, and use them for any number of non-specific purposes. Now it seems with the advent of a 'time poor' society, and lifestyle TV shows, we the consumer need to be sold helpful 'kits' in order to get the job done. The kind of store that exemplifies my point best is hardware super-stores such as B&Q in the UK, and Bunnings in Australia.
The last few times I've visited these places (a necessary evil), I've been searching for relatively simple products such as black plastic sheet, tie-wire, and a standard size bolt - on all occasions I've encountered ridiculous trouble trying to find them. In a traditional hardware store this was easy, 2-3 aisles of hardware, a tools section, garden section, and a timber yard. All the above items naturally fall into the hardware section, so would take all of 2 mins to find, even with help from a store employee. In B&Q black plastic, going by the 'applications' system, could have been bagged as a drop-sheet for painting, or as a garden bed weed-proof matt. No suitable versions were found in the entire warehouse. Similarly, tie-wire could have been in the gardening section, in the fasteners and chain section,or in the car section, or equally in one of those silly randomly distributed end-of-aisle discount bins. It was found in the garden section described as being "useful for tying up plants in the garden or greenhouse" - clearly not applicable to the odd jobs I wanted it for then…. Don't even get me started on trying to find an M8 x 60mm bolt in these places - it would no doubt come in a pack of 3-15 and be hidden at the back of set screws - 20 minutes of searching revealed nothing last time I attempted that one.
So while it's a hassle to find what you are looking for in these stores, If you actually have an idea of the product (not application) what you want, another problem altogether is product proliferation. Proliferation seems to be abundant, not just with similar products, but with the same product marketed ever so slightly differently for different applications. WD40 made a notable appearance in the tool, automotive, and paint sections, not to mention the checkout 'opportunity' stands at B&Q last time I visited. And I wonder why I feel like banging my head against the wall when I leave…..
Ironically, for a style of marketing that is supposed to save the consumer time, it always seems to take 10x longer to find what you are after in these places, as not even the staff have any idea where a specific product lives. Really at the end of the day, these places are setup to extract maximum consumer (read bogan) cash by sending customers on the longest possible journey (read walk past as many 'bargains' as possible).
Naturally these principles apply to supermarkets and the like, but my personal frustration never quite reaches the same level, even when I walk past 3 different branded and sourced versions of the same 1.5 g pack of oranges for 1.99.
The last few times I've visited these places (a necessary evil), I've been searching for relatively simple products such as black plastic sheet, tie-wire, and a standard size bolt - on all occasions I've encountered ridiculous trouble trying to find them. In a traditional hardware store this was easy, 2-3 aisles of hardware, a tools section, garden section, and a timber yard. All the above items naturally fall into the hardware section, so would take all of 2 mins to find, even with help from a store employee. In B&Q black plastic, going by the 'applications' system, could have been bagged as a drop-sheet for painting, or as a garden bed weed-proof matt. No suitable versions were found in the entire warehouse. Similarly, tie-wire could have been in the gardening section, in the fasteners and chain section,or in the car section, or equally in one of those silly randomly distributed end-of-aisle discount bins. It was found in the garden section described as being "useful for tying up plants in the garden or greenhouse" - clearly not applicable to the odd jobs I wanted it for then…. Don't even get me started on trying to find an M8 x 60mm bolt in these places - it would no doubt come in a pack of 3-15 and be hidden at the back of set screws - 20 minutes of searching revealed nothing last time I attempted that one.
So while it's a hassle to find what you are looking for in these stores, If you actually have an idea of the product (not application) what you want, another problem altogether is product proliferation. Proliferation seems to be abundant, not just with similar products, but with the same product marketed ever so slightly differently for different applications. WD40 made a notable appearance in the tool, automotive, and paint sections, not to mention the checkout 'opportunity' stands at B&Q last time I visited. And I wonder why I feel like banging my head against the wall when I leave…..
Ironically, for a style of marketing that is supposed to save the consumer time, it always seems to take 10x longer to find what you are after in these places, as not even the staff have any idea where a specific product lives. Really at the end of the day, these places are setup to extract maximum consumer (read bogan) cash by sending customers on the longest possible journey (read walk past as many 'bargains' as possible).
Naturally these principles apply to supermarkets and the like, but my personal frustration never quite reaches the same level, even when I walk past 3 different branded and sourced versions of the same 1.5 g pack of oranges for 1.99.
well I think this goes close to what I was saying recently to a friend. People seem to think they know more because they watch a lot of TV and see a lot of web pages. However a 2nd year Civil Eng student I know wasn't aware of what a Logarithm was or why it was important he learned about it because that's what software was for.
ReplyDeleteSo while people derive smug feedback as to their knowledge and skills based on their ability to operate their iPhone (or androdid) it seems dissociated that these devices were designed by someone to be used without any greater skills than knowing what you wanted to do (rather than needing to know how).
How then does the "simple person" know if A or B is better when they are really unsure what better means? They can't rely on their own judgement (this one is a nicer colour) so they must rely on the authority coming from association with veracity ... thus the 'brand' being more important as a symbol of quality.
I mean if you can't tell the difference between cotton and synthetic you need that brand to comfort you its better.
Have a read of "Shop Class as Soulcraft" by Matthew B Crawford.
Read the book - Ironically (given the content) one of the machinists at work lent it to me!
ReplyDeleteLike your engineering student example, I've seen Engineers kick off a whole round of CFD analysis, rather than doing a quick back of the envelope calc to see if its a go / no go.
I'm not suprised to hear about these kind of examples when it comes to mathematics at a QLD University - I did my schooling in NSW, and University in QLD, and was suprised at how dependant students were on graphics calculators to solve any kind of equation (they were banned in NSW) - as a tutor I spent a good few weeks trying to teach students how to solve a quadratic equation by hand - most struggled and went back to the graphics calculator following that exam.....
hmm ... I did school in Qld and we started solving quadratic equations by hand in grade 10 iirc. Clearly things have changed since 1982, and it doesn't seem to be for the better :-(
ReplyDelete