Re: My week with Linux: I'm dumping Windows for Ubuntu to see how it goes

On 20 May 2025 05:19:08 GMT, rbowman wrote :

People believe that premium gas is better simply because it costs more.

 
There is a known marketing phenomenon. If a product is priced too low,
even though it's a fair price and would be profitable, people ask 'what's
wrong with it?' so the price is raised to match the other widgets on the
market.

Yup. People are herd animals. They want to be in the MIDDLE of the herd.
Nobody wants to be at the back of the herd, and some want to be in front.

In fact, Amazon "hires" me (at a pittance) to be a GOLD VINE MEMBER.
 <https://amazon.com/vine/about>

When I go to <https://amazon.com/vine/> I get offered 150K items of any
value (where items can be thousands of dollars but most are under $100).

My "job" is to ask for the item and to then write a review for it.
That way, the "herd" animals who are NOT Vine Voices can see a review.

Because nobody wants to buy an Amazon product that doesn't have a review.

I don't know if you would call it passive price fixing or what.

Yup. I agree. People are scared if the price is "too good" to be true.
Most people think along the lines of a simple linear number line.

When I took Marketing (oh, about 50 years ago) in college, they told us to
segregate everything into a simple number line for people to decide from.

It's up to your ingenuity to create that number line, but it MUST be simple
for it to work (e.g., L, XL & GXL car models or Bronze, Silver or Gold
insurance plans).

The point was to NEVER make the buyer's decision complicated.
Make the buyer's decision simple. Even for complicated objects.

Specifically, if the product is complicated (like tires or batteries), then
give them SOMETHING ELSE (like a warranty) to compare the product from.
a. This tire is warranted for 10K miles
b. This tire is warranted for 20K miles
c. This tire is warranted for 30K miles

It could be the same tire for all we know.
The difference is people choose it by the warranty.

Or, as with brake pads, put a spec of copper in it, and it's semi metallic.
Add a spec of sand to it, and it's suddenly now upgraded to ceramic.
Otherwise, it's the basic non-asbestos organic "cheap" brake pad.

Note that all brake pads sold in the USA must (by law) have the cold/hot
friction rating printed on the pad or plate or on the box, but I've never
found anyone who knew that basic fact. Not even auto parts store workers.

You can call up a dealership and ask them what the friction rating of the
brake pads they recommend for your vehicle and they won't even know this.

All they know is the simple number line thought process marketing gives you
of NAO, semi-metallic, ceramic (even as they're all essentially the same).