Way back when I was a kid (read in our politically correct world now – child) it was the custom to receive hand me downs. Toys, books, clothes, even pens and pencils were passed down within families or from relatives.
Our family was not well endowed with cash so the priorities each week related to maintaining a roof over our head and having enough food on the table. The only electronic gadget around the house was a simple AM transistor radio, good enough to wander around the backyard and listen to the Saturday afternoon football. Oh yes, in those days football was only played on Saturday afternoon – no Friday, Saturday night or Sunday football. That is another story.
Wind the clock forward 40 years and the marketing world has had a major victory – everyone wants everything now and it must be the latest, greatest and newest gadget. Now if you think this is an over statement, how many times have you driven down your local street and seen what appear to be reasonably good televisions on the nature strip begging to be picked up and loved? What has happened for such much loved items to be outcast from the warmth of a dwelling and cast to the elements?
Marketing.
It is not good enough these days to view a picture in colour on a perfectly good television, it now must be LCD or Plasma with SD, HD, 3D and a raft of other features. And yes, size is very important. You thought 22 inches was OK but as our genes have evolved and given us taller and larger children so too must our television sets grow. Digressing slightly having seen statistics recently quoting 60% of Australian males and over 50% of Australian females as obese are our television sets destined for a similar fate? When is a big television obese?
Our children are being brainwashed to believe that it is a right to have the most expensive, feature packed gadget (replace gadget with car, house, boat, caravan where applicable) available on the market without regard to cost.
When my wife and I married it was a case of what can we beg or borrow from relatives until we can afford some “new” things. The kitchen table was my grandmothers old table, the television was a hand me down and the “couch” consisted of two bean bags (very comfortable, I might add). The television set was a furniture piece in its own right – a screen with gold knobs and cloth covered speakers enclosed in some polished timber with four sturdy legs. The “stereo” unit boasted a turntable to play 33, 45 and 78 revolutions per minute (r.p.m) music, AM radio stations were available but no FM and this unit boasted a cassette player. In our world we had been taught to only acquire something if you could really afford it.
And in terms of marketing life was very simple. Advertising on television was more a novelty than a hard sell. “Uncle Doug” on Channel 7’s World of Sport was the consummate salesman and yes, a “Four’n’Twenty” pie held general appeal at any time of the day. Listeners were not bombarded by information through technology – most people read a newspaper each day, some watched a little television and most others listened to the AM radio. Internet was but a speck on the technology horizon and mobile telephones were for the very rich and not within the reach of the “common people”.
So what has changed? Advertising hence marketing now permeates all of our information technology mediums. We now have a much broader range of entertainment choices – AM and FM radio with a mix of commercial and public stations. Subscriber pay television with dedicated “theme” channels and now a plethora of digital, high or standard definition theme channels with catchy names such as GO, MATE, ONE and GEM! Mobile phones are now mini command centres with links to messaging, internet access, emails, photographs, video’s, bluetooth and yes, voice communications. And who does not now link into the internet, either on a mobile device or on the home PC, not to mention “social networking sites” such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. With all of these media advertising permeates each and every one, so that we are constantly bombarded with up front promotions, some in our face and others that are very subtle in their messages.
And no subject is taboo in this day and age.
How do you keep a straight face when you are driving your 12 year old daughter to gymnasium and an “erectile dysfunction” promotion blares out over the radio – father/daughters eyes lock for an instant…..what do I do, say something, switch the radio over very quickly or just ignore the voice over urging males to do something about this horrific medical issue? In the end my daughter smiled – no need to change the station – the awkward moment had passed. After all, my 12 year old probably realized that with a sister and brother this was not an issue…..maybe she smiled because it was great to hear her father, normally one to talk under water with ease, awkwardly lost for words.
Now you may have the impression that I have steadfastly resisted the urge to bend to the whims of marketing people. Yes, in some cases this is true. All of my radio equipment is old and I refuse to buy a new fangled box with 4385 features of which only 3 will ever be used – receive, transmit and change frequency.
The challenge, however, is getting the balance right between wanting your children to have more opportunities than you did and resisting the urge to replace perfectly functional items with newer fangled devices.
In the last few days the good marketing people at “3” told me that I was “an awesome customer”. My youngest daughter agreed! I mean, “3” and youngest daughter must be right! And in recognition of this “fact” I was being offered an upgrade to my phone and three months of free access. Plus free access to social networking sites.
The fact is that I had already recently swapped my daughters “meagre” monthly cap for my own, given her my telephone number and a new phone. I had resorted to sourcing a more reliable older Nokia phone from that great recycling system – eBay.
The savings offered to this “awesome customer” proved too great to ignore, so with glee my daughter received a new phone, upgraded cap and free access to twitterfacemyspace sites. Oh the joy to see her face as we silently drove home from the phone shop – me concentrating on the road and she concentrating on driving her new phone.
At home a handover presentation took place – my trusty LG flip phone could now be retired as a spare and I received my daughters pre-loved Samsung. Yes, this was a much more “featured” phone than my LG, and yes, the screen is much clearer to read.
As I burrowed into the couch to learn how to use this beast I reflected on how my daughter had actually “handed me down” her phone.
No, we had now entered the new cycle of “hand me ups”……………………………..
