Marketing shaped our world
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The rise of cosmetics for men
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I remember reading a long article in the mid-eighties about
the cosmetic industry.
The article stated that the market was saturated. A very large
percentage of women in Europe used cosmetic products, and the
women not using it were some kind of hardliners, and would
probably never become enthusiastic customers.
Industries don't like saturated markets, because that doesn't
fit in the mindset of endless continuous growth. So, they had
a Big Problem.
One of the proposed solutions to this Big Problem was to
extend the market to men. Until then, men were hardly targeted
by the marketing efforts of the cosmetic industry. True, some
man bought aftershave. The heydays of Brylcreem and alike was
gone, that was something that belonged to the fifties. So,
they decided to turn the marketing machine to "the other 50%
of the population", the men.
When I now enter the bathroom of people around 30 years old or
younger, I can see the effect. The marketeers won. The
marketing machine has convinced these people that they really
need all kind of cosmetic products, which are so called
specially developed for men.
You can't have generic deodorant, you have to have deodorant
for women and deodorant for men. And so on. This is all big
non-sense, but that is what the marketing is for.
The rise of the mass marketing
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When looking at mass marketing, cosmetic products are a good
example. Because people don't need cosmetic products, and have
to be convinced they do. Before the World War I, people
hardly used any cosmetics. A bar of soap, and perhaps some
'eau de cologne' was for most people enough.
What happened?
First, there came mass media.
It started with magazines with monthly or weekly
subscriptions. Followed by even better penetrating media,
first radio, then television. Now we have the internet and
"influencers".
The advent of mass media opened the door to mass marketing.
Which led to the rise of the cosmetic industry.
Of course, I didn't stop with selling some creme to men. The
marketeers discovered all kinds of new techniques. Like
separation of the market and diversification of the products.
Diversification ad nauseam
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All people have hair, with the only difference is that some
have thicker hair than others.
Go into a drugstore, and you will see a hundred different
kinds of shampoo. For dry hair, for curly hair, for straight
hair, and so on and on. And then there are a million other
products, just for your hair. Conditioners, stuff that give
you more volume, you name it. And all, of course, divided in a
product for men, and a product for women.
Long ago, the cosmetic industry developed a creme to put on
the skin of women. That diverged into a creme for the hands
and a creme for the face. That divided in a creme for the day
time and a creme for the night time. Now we have a creme for
people with 'normal' skin and a creme for people with
'sensitive' skin. (Makes you wonder how bad the 'normal'
creme is, BTW.) And of course, everything duplicated, but
than for men.
This game, of taking a product and diversify in as much
vectors as possible, is constantly repeated.
Interdependent
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This diversification into the absurd is only possible because
of mass marketing.
And this diversification is in turn, what drives the mass
marketing.
Like Escher's masterpiece "drawing hands", the drawing of the
hands drawing the hands, the development of goods and the mass
marketing have become interdependent. The one can not exist
without the other.
Other fields
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Above, we used the cosmetic industry as an example. The
fashion industry is another example. The same principles apply
to all the other fields.
First we had a small cardboard box with some nuts and
risings. Then came potato chips. Than came different flavors
of potato chips. Next to potato based products came corn based
products. And so on. Here too we see diversification ad
nauseam.
In the seventies the Asian car industry conquered the world.
The traditional industry changed models at a low pace, but not
the Asian producers. Their models changed every year, and cars
of other makes soon looked old fashioned. So, the others had
to follow.
From cars to furniture, refrigerators, food processors,
alcoholic drinks, pens and pencils, what ever you can think
of, there is the marketing machinery at work, leading to the
diversification ad nauseam.
It never stops
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As soon as a field is touched by mass marketing, there is no
way back.
The race is on, and can only go faster, more extreme.
The marketing it self has to follow. For ordinary people it
is close to impossible not to be confronted with advertising
and other forms of mass marketing. The marketeers are
constantly searching for more invasive, more aggressive ways to
push their rubbish.
Once the concept of surveillance marketing was put to
practice, every marketing corporation had to follow. Here too
there is no way back. Here too it will only go more extreme.
It shaped our world
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Walk and look around. Every human made thing you see has been
shaped by mass marketing. From the light posts in your street
to the watering can in the garden of your neighbor, the cars
and bicycles in the street, literally everything.
That is why our world looks so different from the images we
have of the thirties and the forties. Those were still the
years of innocence.
