(Conspiracy Nation, 11/18/06)
-- Each year, like clockwork, around the time of the retailers' "Black
Friday," there appears a seemingly spontaneous event. Throughout the
U.S., consumers become possessed by a mania for some particular
product. A suddenly "must have" item receives massive incidental
advertising via news reports on that year's "popular frenzy." But is
the current PlayStation 3 uproar just an example of Buzz Marketing?
On July 30th of 2001, Business
Week magazine ran a cover story on Buzz Marketing. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_31/b3743001.htm)
Buzz Marketing is a stealth strategy in which average people are
compensated for feigning extravagant interest in a product. Usually
those not involved have no idea that an apparent populist mania is
really just a form of street theater.
In its cover story of five years ago ("Buzz Marketing: Suddenly This
Stealth Strategy Is Hot--but It's Still Fraught with Risk"), Business Week provided several
examples of the technique. In one case, Hasbro Games reportedly
"deputized hundreds of fourth-and fifth-graders as 'secret agents' to
tantalize their peers with Hasbro's new POX electronic game."
Are any of those who camped out at stores this past week, seemingly
eager to obtain the Play Station 3, also "secret agents"?
It is the oldest retailing trick in the book: "Limited quantities.
Hurry. Buy now while supplies last." And (Surprise), there are
"Shortages of Sony's new PlayStation 3," say the "news" reports.
Back in 1998, Conspiracy Nation
reported on the "Furby Nightmare." In one of several incidents,
"desperate, bloody fights [broke] out over limited quantities of a
'Furby' toy. For example," reported this publication, "at an
Illinois Wal-Mart store, injuries were reported as shoppers bit
and kicked each other, trying to get and purchase a 'Furby' before it
had sold out."
Now, in the latest suspiciously-timed chaos, there have been
PlayStation 3-inspired "long lines and stampedes." A Wisconsin man was
injured. A Connecticut man was shot. In Kentucky, bullets from a toy
gun struck four people. As Business
Week reported back in 2001, Buzz Marketing is "fraught with
risk."
Some of the eager beavers at the PlayStation 3 stake-outs are one
step ahead of the artificial happening. They hope to re-sell the "must
have" units at a hefty mark-up. But who are some of the others, finding
time to camp out at stores throughout the land? Buzz Marketing "is
cheap. There are no national media buys and no expensive creative
components," Business Week
informs us. Just hire a handful of twenty-somethings to create a stir.
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Conspiracy Nation
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html