When you read this statement what do you see?
1, 2, 3 bedroom apartments from $500,000
beach views and European fixtures
I’m not home shopping just bombarded with on street adverts
I see it is possible to walk in with $500,000 and be able to choose to buy a home with a beach view
a 1 bedroom apartment
a 2 bedroom apartment
or most importantly I can choose to buy the 3 bedroom apartment at $500,000 with a view of the beach and european fixtures.
How do these advertisers get away with this rubbish that bait advertises
You and I both know the 3 bedrooms with beach and fixtures would actually start at significantly more than the statement implies?
It doesn’t just apply to houses of course, Cars and other products regularly tell you list of great features in the car price from $19,990 but many of the features are not available at the $19,990 point.
It makes it impossible to compare vendors mid range and high range prices and leads to significant time wasting.
Do the on street adverts which seem to scoot around truthful in advertising by planting signs on rented shops and building sites, Are they even vetted for truthfulness like ads through an ad agency on a billboard would be?
The wording ‘from’ is becoming widespread in marketing products and services. It applies to almost everything which can be purchased, from accommodation/travel through to professional services, healthcare (glasses), and the list goes on.
It is bait advertising where the quoted price is there to stimulate interest and hopefully sales of products above the from mark.
Whilst it does annoy me as well, I have learnt to ignore it along with other forms of in-your-face advertising.
I get that, and I ignore it too, but I worry for those who don’t see it, who unlike me are not cynical who ‘trust’ … and that to me is a kind of baseline test - can I ‘trust’ - yes I know, seems a little silly, but it often feels like the whole reason we are here on this forum, we get sold on so much, so much advertising, enticements, flash cars, sexy bits waved at us, but at least it would be nice if the facts are correct, even if the person telling us is dressed provocatively and driving a Porsche
I remember shopping for real estate down south many moons ago, and the common thing was ‘offers over 495k’ - then on inspection you’d find the owner wanted 550k?
Advertising seems to push many boundaries - but the one I find offensive is when it pushes the trust boundary … sell me a dream, sell me an emotion, sell me something cool - but don’t mislead me, don’t lie to me …
You can get xyz at abc dollars (then in very small print average is ten times abc), what a crock of fresh guano and it should be banned, illegal, criminal, and altogether not allowed. The problem is we live in a society that currently is run by the big end of town and no matter what enforcement action is legislated/allowed it is rarely used.
The ‘solution’ our illustrious consumer protecting government could be counted on to do might be an asterisk such as most airline ads show.
SYD-LHR only $19.95*.
‘*’= only two tickets per century are available at that price, not on all flights, and the passenger must be between 150 and 150.2cm tall and weigh not more than 25kg. $1,750-$3,125 in fees and taxes additional depending on season and flight. (/satirical comment)
More seriously if there is a complex with 20 units, and the units are all individually priced, there is a huge difference in expectation if they are advertised 'from $500,000 as compared to ‘from $500,000 to $5,000,000.’ I agree that would be a major improvement on truth in advertising, and excepting for the developers owning and operating the country, should be doable.
However, some could argue there are few if any people naive enough to believe that $500,000 headline price reflects more than the cheapest on offer these days, but I know a few younger people who are currently learning about real estate baiting and ‘integrity’ second only to that of the pollies and behind dodgy used car salesmen, so yes!
That is not really the issue the issue is lack of transparency
two developments assuming all the product being identical scale of quality feature location etc
Dev A offers
3 Unit at $500k Quality Scale 2/10
5 Units at $950k Quality Scale 5/10
5 Unit at $3m Quality Scale 9/10
Dev B offers
10 Units at $500k Quality Scale 2/10
5 Units at $750k Quality Scale 5/10
5 Unit at $1.5m Quality Scale 9/10
3rd varies wildly
Dev C offers
15 Units at $500k Quality Scale 1/10
20 Units at $2m Quality Scale 6/10
5 Unit at $5.5m Quality Scale 10/10
Dev A and C are time wasters
Dev B is fair in reasonable in pricing but lack of transparency I may end up being ripped off by Dev A or D or E or F no one has enough time to personally contact every development for true prices.
who ‘trust’ … and that to me is a kind of baseline test - can I ‘trust’ - yes I know, seems a little silly, but it often feels like the whole reason we are here on this forum, we get sold on so much, so much advertising, enticements, flash cars, sexy bits waved at us, but at least it would be nice if the facts are correct, even if the person telling us is dressed provocatively and driving a Porsche 