Upon reading the book Predictably Irrational my eyes were opened to how people perceive just about everything in life. One of the biggest points that stood out to me in the book was the power of comparing. It is incredibly easy to convince a consumer to purchase the product you want them to purchase. Simply have a similar, yet not as great comparison for the consumer. The consumer will almost always choose the better of the compared products even if the other unrelated product is much better in value and overall a better product. Consumers want to know they are getting the best, and how can we determine what is best if we have nothing to compare it to? This makes me think, how ethical is it to understand consumers’ irrational behavior and use that to help urge them to buy a product or service? How do marketers use these vulnerabilities to create buzz around their product without violating consumer trust?

To many this may seem like a very fine line marketers are walking, however to me the answer seems simple. Is the product really in the consumer’s best interest? From the video McSubway Study we see that Subway markets their sandwiches as healthy, but if over indulged (eat the whole foot long) these healthy subs can become just as dangerous on your waistline as a BigMac. So, does this mean that the marketers at Subway are ethically wrong for marketing their sandwiches as healthy? Is eating a Subway sandwich over a BigMac in a consumer’s best interest? I truly believe the answer is yes. Just because a consumer does not do their research does not make a company’s marketing strategy wrong.

Want to watch the McSubway video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FgLlfNvNp8   

Consumers can be easily persuaded whether it is buying a new house, picking a girl up at a bar, or thinking wine that costs more tastes better. Marketers have a responsibility to watch out for the best interests of their consumers but consumers have just as much of a responsibility to do their research. Going back to the foot long Subway sandwich vs. the BigMac, people cannot blame Subway because they are obviously eating more food. Claiming Subway is responsible for tricking them into eating more is like eating twice as much frozen yogurt as you would ice cream and then blaming a frozen yogurt company. Eating healthy and making good choices as consumers takes a little more work and research however the payoff is well worth the work it takes.