Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Persuading the Masses 215entrepreneurs, wish them to buy? Such a circularity thesishas been voiced off and on for at least a hundred years.At best, it is an extreme exaggeration. Despite the greatpromotional influence of sellers and their advertisers, itseems clear that consumers continue to eat, dress, and sleepin beds at night for reasons other than that advertisers havepersuaded them to do so. Nor have unadvertised productsdropped out of shopping lists. Nor is the world’s desire formedical care or electronic equipment exclusively an accomplishmentof advertising. Advertisers do not even whollycontrol consumers’ choices of brands, for on that point consumersreceive conflicting messages that compel them toexercise choice. Panasonic sends a persuasive message tome, but so does Sony. Confused or ignorant as I may be, Imake the choice. Consumers obviously have not wholly orlargely lost control.A sensible statement—not indisputable but plausible—is that consumer control is not destroyed by but shaped andweakened by the appeals of sales promotion. That is worthlooking into.People in the sales-promotion industry often claimcredit for keeping the market system in good health. Advertising,they say, induces people to buy more and—althoughthey often do not say so, it is logically implied—save less.Big spending means more jobs and prosperity. The argumentis simple-minded, for many societies need not morespending but more savings to stimulate growth. That aside,stimulated spending and reduced savings probably do followfrom sales promotion, but the evidence is not all in. Ifthey do follow, it is only a weak circularity, however, forhow much one saves is more governed by one’s culture andcircumstances. The Japanese are savers and Americans arespenders. The rich save, the very poor do not.