Save time and money
Williams stated that the values of time and money are correlated. He uses a quote from Pennie Williams to show this correlation, “Time and money are interchangeable. You can always save one by spending more of the other.” The emergence of Home Depot and Circuit City gave the consumer the ability to go to one store and feel confident that they will find what they need. This new confidence comes with a price, Williams writes. These stores do not always have the lowest prices. The cost of saved time is additional money. If that same consumer was to research and visit a couple of different stores, a lower price could probably be found. This saved money comes at the price of lost time.
I don’t fully agree with Williams. While reading the section on time vs. money the first thing that popped into my head was Wal-Mart. Their advertising campaigns are a combination of saving both time and money.
When the Wal-Mart Supercenters first opened they initially informed the consumer that they are the one stop shopping center. All the great product of a traditional Wal-Mart combined with a grocery store. The busy person could do their normal shopping and grocery shopping at the same place.
Recently the advertising has moved away from saving the consumer time, to saving the consumer money. After a quick visit to Wal-Mart’s website one can find this new direction. There is even a counter at the very bottom of the home page showing how much money has saved their consumers. This can be seen here http://www.walmart.com/. Since January 1, 2008 Wal-Mart customers have saved over $35 billion, and counting. When you click on the store info link on that same page there is more information about Wal-Mart focusing on saving money. There is a very colorful picture of two children with a statement of their common mission. Wal-Mart wants to save people money so that those people can live better. http://www.walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=316
Here is a link to the video. I couldn’t find it anywhere else.
http://www.adage.com/video/Player?spotId=1285&instanceId=&startId=&PageDate=&PageTitle=’,578,500)
Wal-Mart’s advertising does not agree with William’s thoughts on time vs. money. They are giving the consumer savings of both time and money, without having to sacrifice one for the other. The ad shows a family on vacation. Doing vacation type things like going to the beach. After a couple of strategic Wal-Mart shots you learn that Wal-Mart saves the average family $2,500 a year. This family chose to use this savings to take this wonderful trip that we just experienced with them. What will you spend you savings on?
