THE CREATIVITY IN MARKETING (ritual spending)

Here is another thing you probably haven’t considered and probably won’t do anything about because you are already immersed into and accustomed to the lifestyle, even worse, your loved ones are. To explain, by ritual spending I mean the clever ways that marketers use to force us to spend and buy their products. As much as we are being conned into it, there is still some good in it so I guess everybody wins at the end of the day.

Think about Valentine’s Day, father’s day, mother’s day, Christmas and the likes. If I asked you now, “why is it that we invest so much of our time and money into these annual rituals?” From the top of your head, you’d most likely respond “Because we care about the people in our lives, our mothers, fathers, children and lovers.” which may be true! But what if I told you most of these were created and fabricated with the sole aim of convincing the average consumer that spending is necessary during this time? Most of these are being used by marketers to promote their products and getting us to buy them.  This is a creative way for companies to maximise profit. They work hard in making spending a culture. They make you feel so stupid for not participating in it... of which you actually might be. Honestly though, think about it... how many people buy gifts for their mothers on mother’s day? How many parents buy presents for their children on Christmas? Think about how much more money one specific shop makes on that particular day? A truck load of money!

One most popular example of ritual spending is marriage engagements. I would say this was the best scheme of all. Who in the world came up with the bright idea of us men having to use diamonds to symbolize our love and commitment for women in engagements? We need to find him and shoot him! Actually, that would be too easy. Make him sleep on a bed made of needles. Now, that would be something. Go to http://www.americangemsociety.org/the-history-of-the-diamond-as-an-engagement-ring to read more about the history of diamond ring engagements.

We can conclude though, that this has brought us more good than it has brought harm. At the end of the day, the smiles on the faces of the people we love and their satisfaction is a far greater reward than any amount of money. I admit it... I took it a bit too far. Money is life.