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CarFax is brilliant. Somebody got the idea of national advertising to urge consumers to demand that sellers buy the product. Before you buy a car from a dealer, make the dealer show you (and pay for) the CarFax. This is absolute genius, and is a wide open concept for many other industries.
Mail order vitamins, for example. Set up a lab that tests vitamin preparations for consistency of active ingredients, or something. Then blanket the country with ads exhorting the consumers to demand of the purveyors that they "prove" that their vitamins are good, by showing them the endorsement from our company. It doesn't matter if we know how to test vitamin pills or not, we just rake in the money from Puritians Pride and Nature's Best for giving them our seal of approval.
What could be a simpler concept? The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval got away with this for decades. The seal automatically goes to any seller who buys advertising in their magazine, and consumers won't buy a product without that seal. Blackmail and Protection Racket are words that come to mind. The Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce did essentially the same thing. A few bucks buys you a sign in the door that you have some kind of a vague endorsement from an outfit raking in millions. J D Power is getting a piece of the action, too. This looks like a license to print money, so why are there so few people doing it?
Last edited by CowanStern; 05-31-2012 at 11:22 AM..
There's a simple reason. It only works because a USED car remains such a large expenditure, and so its purchase is therefore a source of much insecurity. Most people spend months researching what kind of used car to buy and CarFax represents, to them, valuable information about the car's actual repair record, etc. It wouldn't work on other items because a) Most items get bought new and b) even if they are bought used, the cost simply isn't that much.
So to buyers, a CarFax report is a prudent expenditure that keeps them from being ripped off for literally thousands of dollars. The pain threshold for a smaller purchase just isn't there. There's no real loss when it comes to buying a bottle of vitamins that one doesn't like.
Along the lines, consumer reports tests several items. Also, there are many sites online that allow for users to post reviews of products they have purchased or used. Everything for software to cell phones to tv can be reviewed.
Most online sites or the larger sites like Amazon allow for users to post reviews on products too. Car fax makes it pretty easy to track vehicles, they use the VIN. A vehicle is one of the larger purchases people make.
Houses have home inspectors that usually make the run through on a purchase.
But in the case of vitamin pills, even if you take them for years, how do you know that the product actually contains any vitamins, or how much, or how consistently? How does a consumer reviewing the product online have any way of evaluating the reliability of the products claims to contain the active ingredients that the manufacturer or seller claims? What is the difference, in your opinion, between an expensive vitamin pill and a cheap one? Who do you trust, to tell you? Do you trust the users posts on Amazon to tell you how efficacious a vitamin pill is?
A supermarket brand of multivitamins says on the label "Compare with Centrum", which cost twice as much. How, exactly, do you compare that product with Centrum?
But in the case of vitamin pills, even if you take them for years, how do you know that the product actually contains any vitamins, or how much, or how consistently? How does a consumer reviewing the product online have any way of evaluating the reliability of the products claims to contain the active ingredients that the manufacturer or seller claims? What is the difference, in your opinion, between an expensive vitamin pill and a cheap one? Who do you trust, to tell you? Do you trust the users posts on Amazon to tell you how efficacious a vitamin pill is?
A supermarket brand of multivitamins says on the label "Compare with Centrum", which cost twice as much. How, exactly, do you compare that product with Centrum?
You can't ...
But there are numerous for-profit publications which are in this marketplace already, many of which are small-time monthlies written by doctors or ND's. Some have a vested interest in a product line, some are independent.
As well, Consumer Reports does tests on this type of product from time to time ... if you are looking for a national publication.
But in the case of vitamin pills, even if you take them for years, how do you know that the product actually contains any vitamins, or how much, or how consistently? How does a consumer reviewing the product online have any way of evaluating the reliability of the products claims to contain the active ingredients that the manufacturer or seller claims? What is the difference, in your opinion, between an expensive vitamin pill and a cheap one? Who do you trust, to tell you? Do you trust the users posts on Amazon to tell you how efficacious a vitamin pill is?
A supermarket brand of multivitamins says on the label "Compare with Centrum", which cost twice as much. How, exactly, do you compare that product with Centrum?
When you go to the store next time pick up the store brand and the Centrum brand. On the back of each of the containers is a detailed list of which vitamins and minerals each of them contain. It will likely be a long list. You can compare both of those lists to see which container has the most vitamins/minerals and what percentage of your recommended allowance is contained. For example it may say Iron 100% of daily allowance or Iron 50% of daily allowance etc.
When you go to the store next time pick up the store brand and the Centrum brand. On the back of each of the containers is a detailed list of which vitamins and minerals each of them contain. It will likely be a long list. You can compare both of those lists to see which container has the most vitamins/minerals and what percentage of your recommended allowance is contained. For example it may say Iron 100% of daily allowance or Iron 50% of daily allowance etc.
Correction. There is a list of the vitamins and minerals each of them CLAIM to contain. You have no assurance that they are actually in there, in the quantities claimed. No independent lab has tested the product to evaluate the contents, nor the quality control, nor the processing and handling variables that can influence the efficacy of whatever vitamins and minerals are actually in there. Given the store brand and the name brand at twice the price, which would you buy and more importantly, what aids are available to you to arrive at that decision?
While the cost may seem trivial to you, for the vitamin purchaser the relevant point is the years of their life in which they think they are gaining these nutritional benefits which may in fact be absent or ineffective. Impacting the quality of the remainder of their life.
The purpose of this is not to harp on vitamins, but to examine the manner in which CarFax has hoodwinked consumers into demanding that the marketers buy their product. Vitamin users could equally demand that the sellers of vitamins (or many other things) pay the cost of proving that their product is the value that it is represented to be. By going to the drug store and saying "Show me the DrugFax".
Last edited by CowanStern; 06-02-2012 at 09:53 AM..
Hoodwinked? It's called marketing, and they deliver what they say they will deliver.
First of all, the people that CarFax persuades are not the people who buy their product, so the buyer of their product is not the target of their marketing. If the marketers of CarFax can persuade Group A to pressure Group B to buy CarFax, when doing so is often not in the best interests of Group B.
Second, a CarFax report, in a great majority of cases, is an incomplete record of the history of the car, and is often, if not usually, at least partially misleading. And events in the history of the car are usually so vague as to reveal nothing of relevance except that the car was in an incident, which could have been anything from a door ding to a rollover. So "they deliver what they say they will deliver" with pretty spotty consistency.
Again, that is not the point. The point is if CarFax can successfully exploit this kind of a niche in a market, why it it not being done in other similar ways?
First of all, the people that CarFax persuades are not the people who buy their product, so the buyer of their product is not the target of their marketing. If the marketers of CarFax can persuade Group A to pressure Group B to buy CarFax, when doing so is often not in the best interests of Group B.
Second, a CarFax report, in a great majority of cases, is an incomplete record of the history of the car, and is often, if not usually, at least partially misleading. And events in the history of the car are usually so vague as to reveal nothing of relevance except that the car was in an incident, which could have been anything from a door ding to a rollover. So "they deliver what they say they will deliver" with pretty spotty consistency.
Again, that is not the point. The point is if CarFax can successfully exploit this kind of a niche in a market, why it it not being done in other similar ways?
The this with carfax. The reports are only as good as the information provided. I purchased a pickup recently, I ran the carfax, it was fleet pickup with regular maintence, had oil changes, tires etc all noted there. So in my case it was what I was looking for.
I filed it, I do my own maintence so I will log that information and keep it in the same fire. In my case it was a good deal.
The marketing ploy with carfax is peace of mind. Also as part of that, a history of the vehicle.
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