BOGOFS and Other Goodies

Long ago, even before the appearance of marketing dinosaurs, manufacturers had sales managers and teams of salesmen, (yes in those days they were all men), who sold their products only though recognised outlets. For example Beer was sold only in pubs or off licences, so were crisps, the latter were probably sold elsewhere too but it’s in pubs that I remember them the most clearly.  I’m not sure what that says about my youth but still…. Apart from thick arrowroot biscuits, kept in huge glass jars on the bar counter, there was little else in the way of bar snacks and, particularly in towns and cities, well-cooked food in a pub was a rarity. For a child to be given a bag of crisps was a great treat, they came in a brightly coloured greaseproof bag and some packets had salt wrapped in a piece of blue, tightly twisted paper, you paid your money and you took your choice! It took a few seconds to find the bag of salt during which time the anticipation of the treat to come grew to great heights. As far as I can remember there was only one firm that made crisps in those far off days, Smiths Crisps. And they only offered crisps in one flavour, with or without salt.

 I was recently reminded about all this when trundling around one of the big supermarkets. At the junction of the centre aisles there was a mountain of plastic bags each containing twelve packets of crisps, and two of these bags of twelve were being offered for the price of one. Around the store, similar deals on a variety of basic items tempted shoppers to buy more. Croissants bought singly cost twenty-five pence each, but were on offer at five for a pound, other breakfast and staple foods were available on the same basis. In the booze section multipacks containing up to a dozen bottles or cans of lager or beer were on offer, with huge discounts if more than one pack was purchased. Even the hard stuff was being offered at lower prices if a group of related brands on offer was bought. The message was inescapable, buy more and pay less. If the perceived message were true it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect the bill at the checkout to be lower. But of course it wasn’t. The trolleys arrived at the checkout piled high with enough food and drink to feed a very large family for at least a couple weeks. Greater quantities had been purchased, so more money would be spent.

 I began to wonder what happened to all the extra stuff that was being bought. Did those who bought twenty four packets of crisps make them last over a longer period? Perhaps the twenty or so cans of booze and other cheap drinks were only bought by those with very large families or those planning parties or barbies, it was after all summertime and the weekend. What about all the extra bread, meat, vegetables and other perishable items that had been bought at reduced prices, they can’t be kept for long periods, unless of course they were to be put into the freezer and used as needed. I watched those buying the BOGOFS and other ‘special offers’ with interest. Most of those who bought the crisps and other snacks were younger parents urged on by the children with them; the booze was bought mainly by young men. Unsurprisingly the older shoppers generally bought smaller quantities of everything.

 Not what a marketing mind would regard as acceptable research I agree, but what if all those ‘special offers’ have the effect, not of saving money as they are advertised to do, but of wasting it? What if all the offers not only increases the expenditure of people who can least afford it, but at the same time increases both personal consumption and waste? I can easily believe that a young man can drink twenty cans of lager in a week, but I find it difficult to accept that an average family can eat twenty four bags of crisps in a week in addition to all the other perishable foods in the shopping trolley. I began to wonder if I was nibbling at the edges of some of the big problems of the day talked about by politicians and the medical profession, obesity, binge drinking and waste.

 It occurred to me that modern marketeers face something of a dilemma. On the one hand they are charged with increasing the profitable offtake of their client’s product, and by doing so strengthening manufacturers and safeguarding employment. On the other hand, the greater their commercial success the more the effect of their activities devolve upon conditions that responsible agencies condemn as being seriously dangerous to either consumers or the environment. Of course there are now advertising and marketing agencies who are forced to create new and more subtle ways to advertise products that for one reason or another are dangerous to consumers. They must conform to new laws that are designed to protect emerging consumers and influence them to adopt a different lifestyle, whilst at the same time increasing the sales of their client’s product. Smokers show that telling consumers what products are dangerous to their health have little effect. So, changing attitudes is clearly a long term project, but it is possible.

 If someone had told me all those years ago that the humble bag of crisps would no longer be a once a week treat but would, one day, be sold twenty four bags at a time I would have sent them to see someone in a white coat. But it has happened and the question I ask now is where will it all end? Will we be buying even more crisps, snacks, booze and other items  in ever increasing quantities in the future? As the population increases I suppose the actual bulk will increase but if the amount of this type of food increases per head of population much more, the biggest growth markets will become the medical profession and the waste disposal industry. Still, they will always be able to call upon the marketing and advertising industries to show them how to generate more business.