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Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

pluralistic.net

181–190 of 213 posts

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#181
post #164

Just use any kind of adblocker (uBlock, NextDNS) and ads don't bother you anymore. I honestly never ever bought anything just beacuse of seeing ad. It simply never worked on me. Or targeting was just terrible. What frustrates me more is absence of quality of reviews of products that I think of buying. Usualy there are bunch of generic reviews that was clearly writen for money (cold be called ad) or without deep knowl…

I recently paid 10$ to access a site that reviewed keyboards. It for example let me listen to the typing sounds. I think a niche rewiev site can be a lucrative buisness.

> rewiev

Did the keyboard review site skip the most important test? ;)

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> flood social media with targeted ads for some geoarbitraged thing that tiny startup found on AliExpress decided to sell DTC This is a gem of a phrase. I'm going to use 'geoarbitrage' from now on. I live in a place full of this sort of nonsense, such as resold Clevo ODM notebooks, overly-cheap 'desktop projectors', overly-cheap TVs, water purifiers, and even air-conditioners. Oh, and the 'advertisers' are typically…

Funny, Kitchenaid and Wolf/Subzero are US made and most products I have owned from either are far superior to Japanese/Korean. For instance, my Samsun refrigerator is three years old now and has a poorly engineered ice maker that has been repaired twice, the light for freezer is now working intermittently, and the digital inverter with its obnoxious 10 year warranty sticker on the front of fridge is now is noisier th…

I never said anything at all about American brands; I simply don't get them where I live much (if at all). My LG refrigerator and dishwashers, Sharp microwave, and LG monitors + TV have all been working fairly well for several years.

That being said, personally dislike American brands but only because they usually advertise and use USC units, which make them hard to wrangle in a purely SI country.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#184

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 definitely agree there is a market for that, but the increasing problem is how consumers discover your product and sort through the trash heap of cheap alternatives. Google is useless these days for finding product reviews, Amazon largely just shows you keyboard-smash Chinese brands unless you already know what brand you're looking for, and legitimate review sites like Wirecutter have a hard time keeping up or cove…

> keyboard-smash Chinese brands

I’m stealing that!

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#185
> Targeted advertising is incredibly expensive

No it's not. For example, you are paying $7 million for a Superbowl ad and assuming 100 million viewers, you are getting 14 impressions for a dollar for your old spice after shave lotion. You could have gotten 100 impressions per dollar from people who actually shave had you used YouTube ads. So, targeting is and will always be cheaper... so you're over-paying for products which use non-targeted ads.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#186
post #164

Just use any kind of adblocker (uBlock, NextDNS) and ads don't bother you anymore. I honestly never ever bought anything just beacuse of seeing ad. It simply never worked on me. Or targeting was just terrible. What frustrates me more is absence of quality of reviews of products that I think of buying. Usualy there are bunch of generic reviews that was clearly writen for money (cold be called ad) or without deep knowl…

I recently paid 10$ to access a site that reviewed keyboards. It for example let me listen to the typing sounds. I think a niche rewiev site can be a lucrative buisness.

Link? Does it test what happen if liquid splits on it? If F buttons work by default without Fn? How resistent is paint on buttons?

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#187

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…

Fully agree. I'd pay extra for a dumb TV, but nobody is selling them.

You can buy commercial displays.

Most things marketed to businesses are still high quality. But you do lose features or design elements.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#188
post #155
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you happen to have a summary of your findings somewhere ? I'm all to improve my sponges, umbrellas, etc... !

I really should start keeping track somewhere.. Here's a good list of things off the top of my head. Gustbuster Umbrella Zojila Rohan Dish Drainer GIR Spatulas/tools: https://gir.co/ Emile Henry Salt Pig WMF De Luxe Spice/Pepper Mill OXO makes a ton of fantastic kitchen and household products that I use. Dish Brushes, Cutting boards, toilet scrub brush, measuring cups, ice trays, vacuum sealed containers etc.) Kai 52…

Nice to see WMF in here, I highly recommend their cutlery. Knives that are actually sharp, I never want anything else

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect targeted ads are a part of the phenomenon the article is talking about. Since targeted ads got so cheap, tiny little businesses could buy super targeted social media ads for less money than they could selling their products wholesale at a store. Net result is that they can flood social media with targeted ads for some geoarbitraged thing that tiny startup found on AliExpress decided to sell DTC, and end run…

Your argument breaks down as soon as there are economies of scale. Gillette can probably buy the same quality as Jeremy's at a better price, because they order larger bulk shipments. That means the new niche DTC companies will most likely be a worse value to consumers than the established big brands. Also, the article links to a study which found DTC to be 10% more expensive than traditional retail.

That is not a bad theory, but I can't tell you the difference when I try using one of their shavers vs the store brand ones I usually get.

I also cannot tell the difference between that and just buying safety razor blades, though there is a huge advantage (for me) in the pivoting head.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#190
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That means the new niche DTC companies will most likely be a worse value to consumers than the established big brands Umm, I bought a no-name (but Gillette-compatible!) razor last week while travelling due to having left my usual kit at home. Having used the no-name one for a week, I can no longer see any reason to pay the extra for a razor brand ever again.

As someone that has not changed razor blades in 5ish years, I'll warn that you probably can't generalize how well a razor will work for all skin and hair types. I'm thankful that I don't have issues with mine, but I also don't recommend others change. Granted, I haven't looked at prices in a long time. I am mostly assuming not insane costs.

> Granted, I haven't looked at prices in a long time. I am mostly assuming not insane costs

I'm not sure what "insane" would mean in this contect, but replacement blades for the no-name Gillette clone I bought are half the price of original Gillette ones.

My week using the former showed that, for me at least, the performance of the latter really doesn't justify its price. YMMV.

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