Like last week’s blog, this week’s reading further highlights how most consumers are unsuspecting of products they purchase and the power of marketing. In chapter eight of Selling the Fountain of Youth, something that stood out to me is the vitamin industry. Even in the present, the vitamin industry is popular as some people may actually need to take vitamin supplements due to health complications or because of their lifestyle. In chapter eight of this book, the company called MyVitaminsRX created a product idea I thought was very successful in getting consumers to buy into the fraudulent claims proposed for their product. MyVitaminsRX made customized vitamin supplements for consumers at a low cost and from data collected from a urine-testing kit. In my opinion, the idea of “customized for you” is a very appealing idea. In addition, the use of a “test” is effective in persuading customers that the customized vitamin package is legitimate as most people are not aware a simple urine-test is not very accurate in formulating an “ideal” vitamin package as the human body is very sophisticated. The use of personal testimonies instead of certified experiments was a key factor in persuading the mass about the “positive” effects of drugs, vitamins, and food. Without people constantly contesting the validity of such products people can go around speaking gibberish, and most people who are not skeptical would hop into the anti-aging industry bandwagon. An example from the book is the endorsement of acai berry by Oprah Winfrey as a “super genius smart food of all smart foods” that apparently increases your memory and fights heart disease. To summarize with a quote from the book, “Talk show hosts were doctors. Businesspeople were healers.” (210)
|
Danny yuDanny is a Molecular and Cell Biology major from San Francisco, CA. Fun Fact, he has a Black belt in karate. Archives
May 2021
Categories |