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Thread: Born losers

  1. #1

    Default Born losers

    Apparently you really can be just born that way.

    What do Crystal Pepsi, Watermelon Oreos, Frito-Lay Lemonade, Coors Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water, Colgate Kitchen Entrees and Cheetos Lip Balm all have in common?

    The obvious answer is they are all failed products. What is less obvious is that they may also share a fan base — a quirky subgroup of consumers who are systemically drawn to flops and whose reliably contrarian tastes can be used to forecast bad bets in retail sales, real estate and even politics. These people are known as “harbingers of failure.”

    The study of harbingers emerged from a 2015 analysis of purchasing patterns at a national convenience store chain. (In exchange for the data, the researchers agreed not to reveal the identity of the chain.) Drawing on six years’ worth of data from the chain’s loyalty card program, a team of marketing professors led by Eric Anderson of Northwestern University classified customers according to their affinity for buying new products that were later pulled from the shelves because of weak demand. Of the roughly 130,000 customers whose purchases were logged, a sizable fraction (about 25 percent) consistently took home products that bombed.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/o...r-failure.html
    Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"

  2. #2
    Isn't this just a way of saying capitalism can never fail, it can only be failed?
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  3. #3
    I'm curious if there's a correlation or causation effect here. Not sure if that's the right phrase to use.

    IE are those 25% drawn specifically to new items that then fail disproportionately, while disproportionately ignoring new products that then succeed?

    Or are those 25% drawn to try all new items whether they succeed or fail?
    Quote Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer View Post
    ℬeing upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by RandBlade View Post
    I'm curious if there's a correlation or causation effect here. Not sure if that's the right phrase to use.

    IE are those 25% drawn specifically to new items that then fail disproportionately, while disproportionately ignoring new products that then succeed?

    Or are those 25% drawn to try all new items whether they succeed or fail?
    That's a good question.

    I also wonder if these people could be described as chronically "hopeful" -- willing to try anything, because you never know. Or are they suckers - particularly vulnerable to advertising campaigns? In either case, the data gathered would be of particular interest to marketers...
    The Rules
    Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
    Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
    Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)

  5. #5
    Indeed. I have a general rule of thumb that I'll try anything once [not literally] because if you dislike it you don't need to try it again but if you do then you can appreciate it going forwards.

    Last night my wife and I tried some vegan sausages from a local supermarket that had interesting flavours. She did not like them, I thought they were nice but insubstantial. She wouldn't get them again, but I wouldn't mind getting them again as a convenient pre-packed vegetable for me to cook with my meat in future meals if eating by myself. Probably not what they're made for!
    Quote Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer View Post
    ℬeing upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy View Post
    Apparently you really can be just born that way.



    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/o...r-failure.html
    It me.

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