In Response To Nicholas Vita

What is your take on informercials? Are they a good marketing tactic for a company?

Honestly, I find informercials to be annoying and tend to mute the television whenever one comes on. For this, I would have to say that informercials are not a good marketing tactic for a company to use. It in a way makes them appear desperate because usually informercials are goofy, exaggerated, cheesy and consists of a spokesperson who always tends to be doing the same thing; standing behind a table and speaking loudly into a microphone. I've recently have learned that the spokesperson speaks loud in order to grasp the attention of the viewer because the change in volume from the television show to the informercial alerts the viewer. Although this does not seem affective. Most informercials also appear on late night television which I don't understand because no one is really up during the hours they air. Another thing that seems to be a theme amongst infomercials is the pricing. Why is it always set at $19.95? Clearly not everything being sold in today's society is less than $20. I guess my point is that I feel informercials shouldn't even exist.

Im interested in seeing if anyone has every fallen for one of these informercials, have you personally ever bought something from an informercial?

Name Brand vs. Store Brand

With economy suffering and the middle-class shrinking it is hard to find products that are good for "your buck", especially when trying to provide for a family or even just yourself. It is becoming more popular for brand name products to become store brand instead. Although the store brand is not the same exact thing as the brand name, it follows the same principle in supplying that product to the consumer. Major grocery store such as Big Y Supermarket, Market Basket, and Shaws have been implementing products that are originally brand name like cereal, milk, bread, or chips and turning them into a type of store brand. This is to appeal to the consumer who needs to spend less money for what they purchase in order to survive. By providing store brands, the company is able to bring in more consumers and revenues because they will be creating a product that people already love yet can't spend that amount of money on. I grew up in a family of 7 and that means we had times where store brand products were chosen over brand name because it would benefit us in the long run with money. By saving money on groceries we were able to spend the saved money on other things.

Would you choose store brand over brand name to save money? or do you prefer brand name because of the quality and familiarity?