[li2uR3ce]

> companies need to attract customers - i.e. make their lives better.

Companies need to sell the *idea* of making lives better. They don't actually have to make a customer's life better and many don't despite selling lots of product. Profitability is not a strict function of quality. If it were, we'd not give the slightest fuck about monopolies. It takes a great amount of effort to get companies to compete on "making lives better." If bettering lives is not the most profitable it is very often eclipsed by what is.

It's much more complicated than the simple lie that "you get what you pay for."

[WalterBright]

Do you buy things you don't want?

[rangerelf]

No, but it's very probable li2uR3ce bought things that were portrayed as being much better than they actually were. These days "profitable" for the seller rarely equates with "good value" for the buyer.

[WalterBright]

Most of what I buy is repeat purchases. If they weren't worth the money, I wouldn't buy them. Isn't it the same for you?

[myroon5]

Feels like a false dichotomy? Brand loyalty fluctuates over time and by brand, market, etc. For example, cars are probably the largest repeated purchase in America, and car brand loyalty is nowhere as high as it once was:

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/business/21auto.html

Answers to your question are nuanced, and fortunes are exchanged in purchases like cars even if customers aren't loyal next purchase(s)

[ZoomZoomZoom]

I, for sure, didn't want a laptop that went dead 10 days after its warranty expired.

[lelanthran]

> Do you buy things you don't want?

Unfortunately, yes :-(

Of course, at the time I bought it, I wanted it. TBH, it happened more often when I was young, not so much the last 2 decades of my life.

[unbalancedevh]

People get convinced in the heat of the moment that they want something, when if they had time to reflect/research/etc. they might very well conclude that their money is better spent elsewhere. Marketing in a capitalist system is highly motivated to make you think you want or need something more than you actually do.

One tactic that some people find helpful when they want to buy a discretionary item is to wait a few days/weeks, and make sure that it's not just a whim that they'd regret.

[WalterBright]

Watch TV commercials over the years. The older ones are laughable. They steadily get more sophisticated as the years go by. That's because the customers get more sophisticated, too. You might call it evolution in action :-/

Political campaigns also get more sophisticated. Scott Adams has an interesting podcast where he breaks down the latest manipulative persuasion techniques used.