The popsicle: Consumer Marketing Overload

Big company marketing folks are out of control

Where the heck is my popsicle ??

In the push to make more money, corporations over doing everything. They are trying to get consumers to spend more, consume more, up size more. This constant pressure to sell up; sell more; add more value to products is getting really annoying. It is ruining some basic products I use to like.

Here is what happened. I was at a park and I wanted a popsicle. A plain red Popsicle. or lemon. But the vendor did not have it. They had creamsicle cherry swirl, chocolate cover vanilla indulgance, super bubble gum candy sicle and klondike bars. No plain popsicle anything. He had nothing without milk or chocolate in it. Dag. Can't even get a plain Popsicle.

I see the same behavior at KFC: you want the value meal, right ?? Starbucks: "With this receipt, you can get $2 dollars off a tall beverage, the same day." And shoe retailers: "BOGO sale going on now !!!"

Everyone is trying to sell more even if it is not needed. Of course there is a lot going on with that missing popsicle. The vendors, distributors and manufacturers all make more profit from selling high end products. The vendor can only stock a certain amount of product. They have fixed costs to cover. Gas for the van and refrigeration for the popsicles, his labor all have to be covered. So why spend it on a low margin products. Distributor encourage volume buying. They try to squeeze out competitors products and provide incentives for their own higher margin products. Sames as manufacturers. They try to cover every niche and encourage distributors to carry the "full line" of products.

Of course, when I skipped the Popsicle I was not thinking all of that stuff. I got a Italian ice instead.

Corporate addiction to, rather US addiction to the quick fix like MBA marketing killed my popsicle. Hopefully flat and declining sales spur the vendors to offer a wider choice.

v2