PlusOne – Marketing Musings

I was reading an interesting article in the The Hindu Business Line : When simple isn’t easy about the author’s attempt to buy a simple phone, without all the bells and whistles.

Of course these days buying a simple mobile phone to make or receive calls only is not so easy. As the author says, it comes bundled with cameras, FM radio tuners and MP3 players.

But one line really caught my eye:

So in other words, you were not sold a device that satisfied your need; you got one that multiplied your need for the sake of more business. That’s what consumerism is all about and that’s why those marketers love confused consumers and hate the ones with a defined need.

It’s all about creating needs and desires in consumers that never originally existed.

In the case of mobile phones, there never was a desire for all of the additions, but since they were introduced they have become standardised in most consumer’s expectations.

One of the most common forms of confusing customers is product bundling.

You see bundling in software packages, rooms of furniture, cars, phone/internet etc.

For business owners creating confusion can be an important part of the sales process. It allows the salesperson to cover many needs and desires. These are focused on and the other aspects of the product bundle are presented as valuable extras, offered at a better price than if you ordered them individually.

Product bundling is here to stay and prospectively get more intrusive on our buying experience. It will become increasing difficult to identify the boundaries of what the individual products are and what is now the ‘new whole’. Just think of mobile phones and telephony/internet as two examples.

Do you have some examples of product bundling or the melding of several products into one? We’d love to hear them.

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