Our Consumer-“Ation” Nation

I’ve been reading about some new marketing terms in the US of A Today and I thought I might share some of them with you. Being the creative person I am, I have added a few of my own. 

Knowing that someday I wanted to start my own business, I took some marketing classes in college. One of the biggest lessons I remember is what they called the “law of supply and demand”. Basically stated, it means that prices are determined by the relationship between supply and demand. If the supply of a good or service outstrips the demand for it, prices will fall. If demand exceeds supply prices will rise. Sadly, in these post-Covid days, demand has remained high while supply has been low. We have been through a period of historically high prices but the market seems to be correcting itself. And as the market adjusts, prices and inflation will fall. 

SHRINKflation is the science of removing volume from any given product. It can simply mean there are less grits in the same size box or the box and contents are just a tad smaller. But to make up for it, the company charges the same price as before. Orange juice fans are complaining that Tropicana is ripping them off by selling smaller bottles at the same price as before. On the flip side, I remember being a kid and buying a candy bar for a nickel. Now the candy bars are ginormous but prices have risen even more. Would this be BIGification?

A few years back, in order to capture more market share and more shelf space, companies decided to create a large variety of basically the same item. Take Oreos for instance. In addition to plain old regular cookies there are over 80 different ways to get your Oreo fix! If you think I am exaggerating, Google it! Well apparently companies have figured out that carrying a wider variety of products has not added to the bottom line, therefore they have decided to reduce the number of products they offer and concentrate on the most profitable. They are calling this SKU rationalization . You’ll probably see some of your favorite stuff disappearing from the shelves soon. 

GREEDflation happened right after Covid when companies learned that they could charge just about anything for their products and get away with it. Covid disrupted supply chains and made some products hard to find. After fast food franchises started charging through the roof for their burgers or whatever, consumers finally rebelled and now you can see them offering lots of $5.00 meal specials. Hopefully greedflation has peaked and prices will get back to normal.

I have decided to add a few of my own terms hoping that they will catch on and somehow the money will come pouring in. LARGEification is the process of me adding just a pound or two each year. I swear my eating habits are the same and I give my rocker a vigorous workout each morning and then again in the evening. But the pounds keep sneaking up on me. DIETification is probably the solution, but it’s so hard to do – and the word is too difficult to pronounce.

Finally, I do have to mention Amazing Amazon. It seems mystical to me that I can turn on my computer, order some obscure little part for my golf cart and have it the next day. Have you noticed all the little gray Amazon Prime trucks buzzing around the park a lot lately? I am amazed that they even deliver on Sunday. 

Now if I can only come up with the much needed CASHification method to pay for all the stuff I ordered.