61–70 of 213 posts
I consider this phenomenon part of what I like to call the "Amazon syndrome", even though Amazon is far from being the only culprit. As China started flooding the rest of the world with cheap but decent products mass-produced in a random factory in Shenzhen, people turned away from brands they used to trust and towards no-name options from the likes of "Kxbnheb" or "Ypknwoj" in order to save a buck. Eventually the bi…
If an advertising platform doesn't work well, it can only support extremely high profit margin luxury goods because cutthroat commodities can't afford ads that don't work. The real story is social media marketing is ineffective, not that the products are trash. Its kind of like what's advertised in spam.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not true that established brands made cheaper products to compete. Their prices remained the same or got higher, but quality still suffered. It’s just greed, no complex reasoning required. I recently bought a gym bag from Nike. Feels super cheap, like I could have gotten it from Aliexpress. The zippers keep locking into the fabric. Feels completely disposable. Bought a pair of running shoes from Skechers early l…
Running shoes are good for about 600 to 700km fyi. After that, the foam breaks down too much to provide adequate cushioning and the right sproing. Having the external hard rubber last longer than that is just unnecessary weight. You may just be in better shape than you were in college. Distance stacks up fast and running faster wears shoes out faster. sauce: I run marathons and go through about 6 pairs of running sho…
This is probably not the best for my feet, but when I bust a hole where my big toe goes I feel less bad because I spent $10 and not $100.
I consider this phenomenon part of what I like to call the "Amazon syndrome", even though Amazon is far from being the only culprit. As China started flooding the rest of the world with cheap but decent products mass-produced in a random factory in Shenzhen, people turned away from brands they used to trust and towards no-name options from the likes of "Kxbnheb" or "Ypknwoj" in order to save a buck. Eventually the bi…
It’s not true that established brands made cheaper products to compete. Their prices remained the same or got higher, but quality still suffered. It’s just greed, no complex reasoning required. I recently bought a gym bag from Nike. Feels super cheap, like I could have gotten it from Aliexpress. The zippers keep locking into the fabric. Feels completely disposable. Bought a pair of running shoes from Skechers early l…
Skechers is building a sprawling set of office buildings in the expensive town of Manhattan Beach, CA. That money has to come from somewhere.
If an advertising platform doesn't work well, it can only support extremely high profit margin luxury goods because cutthroat commodities can't afford ads that don't work. The real story is social media marketing is ineffective, not that the products are trash. Its kind of like what's advertised in spam.
You'd need to evidence that claim a lot before you could write a compelling post about it. I'd totally be down for a detailed post that goes into the numbers and comparative effectiveness of different ad spends though. That could be quite interesting for understanding the direction of the web going forward. If Social media marketing is useless then large segments of the current web and current economy is going to end abruptly.
Seeing this blamed on Amazon and the like is... Awkward. Have folks never seen dollar stores? Or paid attention to most mall stores? Been to a local market? This is nothing new. Nor is lamenting the decline of quality.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve got a take: I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality.” I desperately want to spend more money on a product that will stand the test of time but it’s so hard to find them at times. Sure there will always be a majority of shoppers who want the cheapest thing as fast as they can get it and they won’t mind if they have to buy 3 of them every year, but I thi…
> I’ve got a take: I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality.” Misleading, dishonest marketing and bribed reviewers make it impossible for a consumer to know that a high quality product is indeed high quality without trying it before (which is often impractical) Whatever you do to differentiate yourself will be copied by 728934712 Chinese brands which will fl…
I've got three kids. We have so much crap all around the house. We buy the junk that is constantly advertised to us. We purchase from Walmart which mostly sells crap too. If we stopped for a minute and got off the social media train of consumption, and bought only high quality things, but a lot less of them, we would have a much better life and no clutter. But we don't.
If an advertising platform doesn't work well, it can only support extremely high profit margin luxury goods because cutthroat commodities can't afford ads that don't work. The real story is social media marketing is ineffective, not that the products are trash. Its kind of like what's advertised in spam.
When you buy a product that's been advertised, you also have to pay for the ad that was served to you. Ban ads!