Engineering a ''Need''

chillin117

Solutions for problems that don't exist, The latest...
Little girl ''Mum, This washing machine stinks''
Mum comes to the rescue with a smile and a bottle of Dettol Washing Machine Cleaner. !
I remember the likes of Armitage Shanks throwing millions at a ''Need'' The Bidet's never caught on
Same happened to the moist toilet paper people, Dead in the water (pardon the pun)
Anyone any more ?

Lux23

Halitosis as a condition was invented to sell Listerine.

jester77

Those countertop disinfectant sprays. We were all fine 15 years ago without them, but now we will die a slow horrible death from "bacteria" if we don't use them.

Anti-bacteria is now sold like low-fat, it's like there is no such thing as good fats or bacteria any more.

Ronald Wilson Reagan

chillin117 wrote: »

Solutions for problems that don't exist, The latest...
Little girl ''Mum, This washing machine stinks''
Mum comes to the rescue with a smile and a bottle of Dettol Washing Machine Cleaner. !
I remember the likes of Armitage Shanks throwing millions at a ''Need'' The Bidet's never caught on
Same happened to the moist toilet paper people, Dead in the water (pardon the pun)
Anyone any more ?

The bidets are fierce handy for somebody afflicted with a hairy arse, not that i'd know anything about that.

Your Face

Pavee point.

chillin117

Your Face wrote: »

Pavee point.

I'm talking products.

Your Face

chillin117 wrote: »

I'm talking products.

So am I

eeguy

99% of the app market.

Inventing first world problems to solve.

chillin117

Your Face wrote: »

So am I

Pavee Point is a Service

Junkyard Tom

Those lubrication drops for 'tired looking eyes'.

Fuck the fuck off.

CruelCoin

Lux23 wrote: »

Halitosis as a condition was invented to sell Listerine.

Which used to be sold as a general cleaning fluid.

frag420

Condoms invented to protect against pregnancy...when did a belly or a boob splash stop working?

Sapphire

frag420 wrote: »

Condoms invented to protect against pregnancy...when did a belly or a boob splash stop working?

Well, lots of times actually.

Dawn Rider

frag420 wrote: »

Condoms invented to protect against pregnancy...when did a belly or a boob splash stop working?

A few months before the kids were born

Realt Dearg Sec

chillin117 wrote: »

Solutions for problems that don't exist, The latest...
Little girl ''Mum, This washing machine stinks''
Mum comes to the rescue with a smile and a bottle of Dettol Washing Machine Cleaner. !
I remember the likes of Armitage Shanks throwing millions at a ''Need'' The Bidet's never caught on
Same happened to the moist toilet paper people, Dead in the water (pardon the pun)
Anyone any more ?

Dettol are old hands at this kind of nonsense. Like the time they released a hands free soap dispenser so that you don't get any germs on your hand touching the button. Which you would only ever press right before you wash your hands... And as someone else mentioned, the whole basis of their marketing strategy is scaremongering. I remember David Mitchell commenting on their ad that says "your chopping board has more germs than a toilet seat". Yeah, well, clearly that's fine, since we're all still here! Expensive products to fight imaginary dangers.

Ficheall

If I ever have a house built from scratch, it will have a bidet.

Ficheall

Ficheall wrote: »

If I ever have a house built from scratch, it will have a bidet.

Just get a bum gun. Cheap and cheerful.

frag420

frag420 wrote: »

Condoms invented to protect against pregnancy...when did a belly or a boob splash stop working?

Seven times , in my family, apparently

Steve

The 'food pyramid' and 'breakfast' as we know it.

Invented by the American cereal growers.

Stigura

So much around contemporary Dog ownership comes to mind.

Or am I thinking of " Engineering a Profit " ?

Diamonds.

De Beers famously engineered that need in the late 1800s.

Stigura

Deleted User wrote: »

Diamonds.

Yeah! Gold. The whole shebang. (Ref Blackadder; Matey inventing " Green ") I have Never got that concept.

Frankly? I think copper is a nicer colour than modern gold.

Who the hell first said; " Oh, sweet jesus!!! Look At That diamond / bit of gold, what ever. I'll give ye my virgin daughter and a hundred horses for that! " and started the whole charade?

Seriously?

thesandeman

Joe Duffy.

thesandeman

thesandeman wrote: »

Joe Duffy.

Im enjoying this as an answer to the post above it

B.A._Baracus

It has to be said that to create an successful need or desire to buy a product deserves a round of applause... it really does
I think Apple deserves a special mention with this one. With the iPhone they have marketed it so well that people are willing to spend 600 euro on a phone, yet a phone is a phone. I could buy an 150 euro phone (say from another big brand as Sony) and it can do the same while build quality is just as good. But people feel they are getting their monies worth from Apple :pac:
Heck, I could even spend the next 5 years buying a budget smartphone each year for 50 euro. Only works out at 250 euro. Now how many iPhones will come out in that period? each one better than the rest that you MUST buy with your hard earned money? :pac:


Another aspect of Apple is their macs. Designers and coders have been 'sold' on the idea that if you are serious about your profession you need a mac... even tho both pc and mac have programs to achieve the same result. Oh no, skill and experience isn't important... it's what platform you use

Like seals clapping for fish to be honest.

mansize

Most high end Phones are in the same region price wise as the iPhone.



Anyway- Actimel - there was a product built on exaggerated benefits.

Esel

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

It has to be said that to create an successful need or desire to buy a product deserves a round of applause... it really does
I think Apple deserves a special mention with this one. With the iPhone they have marketed it so well that people are willing to spend 600 euro on a phone, yet a phone is a phone. I could buy an 150 euro phone (say from another big brand as Sony) and it can do the same while build quality is just as good. But people feel they are getting their monies worth from Apple :pac:
Heck, I could even spend the next 5 years buying a budget smartphone each year for 50 euro. Only works out at 250 euro. Now how many iPhones will come out in that period? each one better than the rest that you MUST buy with your hard earned money? :pac:


Another aspect of Apple is their macs. Designers and coders have been 'sold' on the idea that if you are serious about your profession you need a mac... even tho both pc and mac have programs to achieve the same result. Oh no, skill and experience isn't important... it's what platform you use

Like seals clapping for fish to be honest.

Aren't you supposed to be 'busy' or something?

B.A._Baracus

Esel wrote: »

Aren't you supposed to be 'busy' or something?

Busy?

The worst offenders for this is the beauty industry. You can buy specific creams for your hands, chest, neck, eyes, and feet. You can buy scrubs for your face, your body, your feet, and even your lips. You need several types of cream for your face alone, eyes, neck, and special serums to go with them. You need two kinds of cleansers, toners to remove the residue of the cleansers, then the battery of area creams, and the 'special treatments' of acids, peels, masks, extractions, massages, and even gadgets to clean your face.

Your hair needs shampoo, conditioner, bb cream, heat protection spray, extensions, hairspray, color and cut, and of course a battery of styling products and gadgets like dryers, straighteners, curlers, wands and tongs.

Nails are an industry too, you don't just file and polish, you need basecoats, color, topcoats, crystal files, emergy boards, cuticle trimmers, orange sticks, cuticle cream, nail oil, whiteners, special finishes, lately I've seen the introduction of the 'accent nail' and of course nail 'art'.

Makeup is serious business. The last bit of female facial real estate available for exploitation were the eyebrows, which were previously just styled, perhaps penciled and combed. Now you can buy waxes, powders, setting agents, extensions, pencils, growth enhancers and you're simply not groomed anymore until you look like Groucho Marx. This is besides the plethora of base coats, blushes, highlighters, contours, primers, eye primers, eye shadows, eye pencils, eye liners, lip liners, concealers, brighteners, mascaras, and setting sprays. And much, much, much more.

Then there's the feminine 'hygiene' industry. You need special products to wash the female genitalia, products to line your underwear, products to perfume your vulva, products to remove every hair possible, treatments to bleach your anus, and even bejewel your pudenda.

Your feet alone need special softeners, foot files, specific clippers, polishes, heel creams and scrubs.

Of course to sell all this, the awareness of those imperfections has to be spread first, and the whole empty spectacle is driven by manufactured insecurities.

It's hard to resist, I've my own fair share of oils, creams and conditioners, but the whole pore-closing, age-defying, scalp-detoxifying (I actually saw that on a product) industry is built on lies and insane expectations, and it's not healthy for little girls - and increasingly little boys - to be constantly exposed to the idea that everything about them needs to be improved with the purchase of a cream.

Badly Drunk Boy

Ronald Wilson Reagan wrote: »

The bidets are fierce handy for somebody afflicted with a hairy arse, not that i'd know anything about that.

That's not what George Bush Sr (nor Maggie Thatcher) said...

MilesMorales1

I do like having a nice lemon smelling spray for the kitchen counter though.