Manipulating public thinking

In the early 1990s, arguably *the* quintessential American store, based in Arkansas was humming along with its tag line that everything they sold was made in America!

They were proud of that fact, and ran ad campaigns touting it. And the patriots who like to wrap themselves up in the flag ate it up. Murica and all.

Then came an economic downturn and an interest in a more global economy. So Wal-Mart made a business decision, and started sourcing products from China. And they re-tagged themselves with the new moniker "always the low prices."

There's a book that came out in 2006 called "the Wal-Mart effect" which talks about the nature of the company, and decisions that they made at the time to evolve into the new brand with low prices. Surely some of it was good and some of it wasn't, but it's interesting reading.

Anyway, back to the story. So they made this fundamental shift. Not made in America, but rather low prices.

And their fans, the ones who were all about American made, simply changed their thinking. Wal-Mart was masterful at marketing themselves and telling people how they could save them money.

The sheeple had very subtly had their thinking changed. Wal-Mart was still the American store. But it turns out it really didn't matter that products were American made.

It's amazing that they managed to make this happen through tv and print ads, and in store, without social media.

...and here's where this comes back to today. You could view the social media campaigns to laud or denigrate any thing the same way. Whether it's an elected official or a store, people can be easily manipulated by playing to their base thinking. Specifically "make America great again" was designed to get the same ensconce-yourself-in-the-flag folks to have a response at a base level. One they will cling to .. it seems like always.

By the way, Wal-Mart is trying to shift back to made in America but they're finding that harder. Costs are higher and it turns out people really do want to pay less.