Segmentation of the market and uninformed consumers

[Shikica]

As everyone knows long gone are the days of a mass market with everyone knowing the price of any good for sale to the public. Want a new chair? Well look at a list of different companies and their prices for similar types of chairs.

Nowadays companies are indexing everything about us that they can through massive service input (ex. google, rewards programs at grocery stores) form personal profiles to give us prices and service options customized to us.

While the corporations are gaining much more sophisticated knowledge about the market, they are hiding more and more information from the consumer. And by segmenting the market (to the point where in the future it's not unlikely that we will soon be talking about segmenting to groups of 1) they are further isolating consumers and making them vulnerable to exploitation.


I wrote up a lot more on this but my touchpad deleted it. I think we have enough to discuss the effects of product customization, data mining, as well as the methods that companies are using to keep consumers uninformed.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

the methods that companies are using to keep consumers uninformed.

dear, we still live in a free world so you can sell information to inform consumers all you want!! Also, if we were really uninformed we would be buying pet rocks but instead we spend all our money on food clothing shelter etc etc.

Do you understand?

 

[Shikica]

the methods that companies are using to keep consumers uninformed.

dear, we still live in a free world so you can sell information to inform consumers all you want!! Also, if we were really uninformed we would be buying pet rocks but instead we spend all our money on food clothing shelter etc etc.

Do you understand?

Hm.. not really could you elaborate?

What does being uninformed about the market have to do with the existential human necessity of our purchases?

Also what do you mean by selling information to inform customers? Normally when I think about a free world I think about the rights of individuals, not so much political or economic institutions, so I also don't see where the relevance of that comes in to play but if you define free world differently then please ignore that objection.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

what do you mean by selling information to inform customers?

dear, you said there was a problem because evil corporations were keeping people uninformed! If so that means there is need for information which in a free world you can provide a profit.

Do you understand now??

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

What does being uninformed about the market have to do with the existential human necessity of our purchases?
.

why is the idiot asking me when I never said a world about it????

 

[Shikica]

what do you mean by selling information to inform customers?

dear, you said there was a problem because evil corporations were keeping people uninformed! If so that means there is need for information which in a free world you can provide a profit.

Do you understand now??

I don't think you realize my point. I'm purposing that certain corporations can keep information from us intentionally in order to undermine the "free market" and unfairly exploit consumers. I suppose they could somehow sell this information to consumers, but the only people who possess it are those who are purposefully withholding it. So I don't think they would sell it, but regardless lets assume that they wouldn't.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

I'm purposing that certain corporations can keep information from us intentionally in order to undermine the "free market" and unfairly exploit consumers..

so give us your best example!!!!!!!!!! or admit to BSing for God knows what reason!!

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

corporations can keep information from us intentionally in order to undermine the "free market" and unfairly exploit consumers.

so then, dear, you could profitably sell the information that is withheld to consumers and get rich and famous.

Now do you understand???

 

[Shikica]

I'm purposing that certain corporations can keep information from us intentionally in order to undermine the "free market" and unfairly exploit consumers..

so give us your best example!!!!!!!!!! or admit to BSing for God knows what reason!!

Well sure - lets take the most basic example there is. You want to buy a sandwich from subway, so you go to subway's website and click on all sandwiches and then click on the spicy italian to find out how much it costs. Well the cost isn't there. So you click on "order!". Now you're on a different page and you see another button that says "order online!", now you have to choose your specific store, then you choose the sandwich again, and then and only then do you see the price of the different lengths of that type of sandwich (and now if you want it to be put into a salad format, or if you want certain toppings that also increases the price).

In order to find out the price for a sandwich at subway, you need to go through a massive barrage of clicks on their website (notice that you can't find the price until after you've gone through this long process of placing an order, now you are only 2 clicks away from paying). But lets consider the most important part - that sandwiches in different areas of the same part of the same state (note that the socioeconomic demographic is not the defining factor to this point) are all very differently priced.

Now how do you know whether or not that sandwich is fairly priced or not? Are you getting a good deal? Is there any way to tell? What makes subway decide what prices for which stores are attributed to which types of sandwiches and which toppings and other customization options (ignoring for a moment that subway is franchised because this point applies to any large corporation in retail)? Well it's data gathered through data centers and also through companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft which are analyzed to determine the most that you are willing to pay for a given product.

So that example shows us a couple features of how our market is evolving. Firstly it is hard to tell how much anything will cost, in part because of massive customization and personalization (which isn't inherently bad but is abused for nefarious purposes) and in part because of highly localized pricing and also in part to, for instance in the case of airlines, massive data recorded about you such as what sorts of things you have been typing in to google or searching for on amazon. And secondly it is highly segmenting the market through these same tactics.

It is the issue of data mining our daily lives which contributes to the growth of both of these issues as tools to ultimately exploit consumers into paying as much as possible for any good.

As for selling information, it is much more profitable for google to sell their data to corporations rather than individuals.

 

[Jomama]

Shitka, you order sub sandwiches online?

Ed's point is simple; the free(ish) market has dynamic balancing and everyone tries to get the best deal; if you really honestly think you are being ripped off when buying sandwiches online then use that to your advantage. Either write code which reveals the true cost of a sandwich or sell your own at more transparent prices. The most unfortunate thing about our economy is that no one has sympathy for a lazy whiner. Either deal with your overpriced internet sandwiches or do something about it.

 

[Moonglow]

Battle of the twits.....

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

. Firstly it is hard to tell how much anything will cost,

100% stupid of course since when you buy a sub sandwich you find out the cost.

if it is too high you can shop at a million other places or make your own.

Sorry to rock your world,

 

[Shikica]

. Firstly it is hard to tell how much anything will cost,

100% stupid of course since when you buy a sub sandwich you find out the cost.

if it is too high you can shop at a million other places or make your own.

Sorry to rock your world,

yeah once you already have gone through all the trouble of ordering your ultra-personalized sandwich you find out the cost...

I don't claim to be an expert but I feel like you aren't looking at this from an economics perspective.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Hm.. not really could you elaborate?

What does being uninformed about the market have to do with the existential human necessity of our purchases?

Also what do you mean by selling information to inform customers? Normally when I think about a free world I think about the rights of individuals, not so much political or economic institutions, so I also don't see where the relevance of that comes in to play but if you define free world differently then please ignore that objection.

Wait, you think the average consumer is LESS informed about products they buy now?

With the internet, i know the minute details of any major product.

 

[Uncensored2008]

yeah once you already have gone through all the trouble of ordering your ultra-personalized sandwich you find out the cost...

I don't claim to be an expert but I feel like you aren't looking at this from an economics perspective.

I know what I will pay for a car or truck before I ever step on a car lot - try that before the Internet.

You are completely off kilter on this.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

yeah once you already have gone through all the trouble of ordering your ultra-personalized sandwich you find out the cost...

.

dear, a sandwich shop does not want your business once, they want it over and over again knowing that you will find out the price the first time you buy.

why not tell us whether you're liberal or conservative and why? Its best to learn about important topics not silly ones.