• They call businesses up looking for information telling the unsuspecting business they are shipping Supplies Company and are sending a catalog and are looking for the name of the person who makes those decisions.
• By the next month the business receives a half a case of cheap shipping tape as well as a cheap tape dispenser through Fedex. Like other packages the company receives, when the package arrives they have to sign for it in order to receive it. The box has a on it what would appear to be a purchase order number as well as a name of a purchaser on its packing list.
• By the next week a bill is sent to the business for over $335.56. $50 of this order is for the shipping. The bill goes to accounts payable. You are paying at least $10 per roll for tape.
• Shipping tape is rather inexpensive. For $5 you can buy 12 rolls of tape.
• If the company is rather big the company may just pay the bill like any other bill. If the company is small they might more than readily admit that they never ordered the package and call the company.
• Calling the company can be rather gloomy. You receive a simple message saying to leave a message and they will get back to you within 24 to 48 hours.
• If you decide to wait for the phone call they will tell you that you cannot return the tape without an RMA number. If you purchase the tape they will call you and thank you and tell you they have that other half a case of tape you ordered to send to you as if you placed a real order.

Once you get to this point what you do next is rather critical. Upon doing a search on this particular company on Google some interesting things were found. First and foremost, they had no website. All they have are 34 complaints on Yahoo from the year 2006.

The best advice to be given is this - refuse the package. Call up Fedex and tell them you did not place the order and refuse the package. From them get the call tag that you refused the package and had them send it pack. Return the bill to the company via return to sender.

This information is being given in order to make one aware of the types of scams out there targeting businesses in order to make their own profit. They probably have only a couple of cases of tape which they are constantly resending out to unsuspecting companies in order to make their tidy profit. One thing is the best bet - if you did not order the package never pay for it.

Vendors structure their marketing around various factors. They consider overall trends in cell phone usage, the frequency with which subscribers use phones, and the most utilized functions (checking e-mail or text messaging, for example). They consider basic demographics as well, such as gender, age, and geographical location. Young people, for example, are typically drawn to technology and are willing to adopt new devices. They are often very brand conscious. They are typically drawn to a new phone that is multifunctional, allowing them to text message, play music, and browse the Internet. Manufacturers design cellular phone devices and services that cater to these features. Business users, on the other hand, typically have different needs. Those using cellular phones for business have needs that tend to involve handsets with a large screen, mobile e-mail functionality, and advanced calendar and synchronization capabilities. Manufacturers design devices accordingly for the business user and market them through different media outlets directed to a professional audience.

These products that are not purchased often enough to justify their space in a store make up the long tail. The hit CDs and the DVDs of blockbuster movies are not part of the long tail because they are better sellers and are actually worth a store's carrying them. For years, the big money makers enjoyed a long shelf life at major retail stores, while the long tail receded into the background, falling out of print or other forms of production. Now, times have changed.

The long tail products are staging a revolt against their more popular counterparts, with much assistance from online stores, especially those unaffiliated with major companies and retailers. Websites such as amazon.com and overstock.com are offering more variety at a lower cost than retail franchises such as Circuit City, Target, or Borders. I recently purchased the 1994 comedy film Little Big League. Grossing just over $12 million (Yahoo! Movies, 2007) during a year in which the top fifty movies ranged from $28,735,315 by Drop Zone to $329,694,499 by Forrest Gump (“Top Movies of 1994,” 2007), Little Big League was rather unpopular even when it first came out into theaters. Needless to say, it is even less popular now, and more than likely not to be carried by any store trying to make money. When a movie makes as little money as Little Big League did when it comes out on DVD, retailers are quite reluctant to keep it on their shelves.

Thus, such a movie becomes hard to find, and almost disappears. When I went to Best Buy at the Pyramid Mall, I could not find even one copy of Little Big League. When I went next door to Borders, not one copy of Little Big League. When I went over to Barnes & Noble, once again, same thing. These stores have made such movies a piece of history.

I decided the only way to get it was to buy it online. Among the websites I searched were the Internet versions of the three stores I traveled to, as well as amazon.com and overstock.com. The lowest price, after shipping and tax, was at overstock.com. Even when these larger companies try to follow the trend by complimenting their brick and mortar establishments with an online supplement, they cannot compete. The online prices must match the in-store prices or else a company could put its own stores out of business. Thus, the online sites for these major franchise retailers do not help much in lowering the prices and making them more competitive.

This shows a very important trend in current and future media distribution. The unknowns, the niche items, the non-mainstream products are now viable assets to businesses that can afford to offer them. This movement has several important consequences. First of all, there will be an incredible increase in the variety of media products available to consumers. Movies like Little Big League are not lucrative enough to make the cut at most stores. Years ago, before this trend took hold, I probably would not have been able to get my hands on a copy of that movie, or others like it. But, now I can. Secondly, the prices of these products, as well as the bestselling books, the blockbuster movies, and the hit CDs are all dropping.

Not only did I purchase Little Big League from overstock.com for a fraction of the price it would have been from Best Buy or Borders, but even last year's favorites such as Pirates of the Caribbean and X-Men (“Top Movies of 2006,” 2007) are less on overstock.com. Lastly, what gets the go ahead for production in the first place will eventually change. Instead of only producing movies because they will be blockbuster hits, or only signing an artist who will record a multiplatinum selling album, companies can produce media that will find a niche audience and maintain a modest, yet consistent flow of profit.

This last change is very relevant to us as consumers. As these internet based, long tail companies make obscurities and non-mass products more and more profitable, it will set the stage for more of these movies, television shows, and music albums to be produced in the first place. It will be harder for big corporations to justify focusing all their resources toward the hit of the year when a movie that will reach a fraction of the number of people, might make the same amount of money, if not more.

This very well may usher in an era of smaller, independent production companies showing a better survival rate. A certain movie studio or record label that produces a very specific genre might find that it now has an more substantial outlet for its product. The survival and development of focused media production companies could definitely benefit the consumer as independently made, specialized productions improve in quality and size of selection. This trend would have a very large impact on the production of media.

While this shift in media distribution power might seem unimportant, it affects how we buy, where we buy, what we buy, and how much we pay. The long tail trend affects how we buy because we will no longer purchase our media based on what the stores tell us is popular or what the stores are pushing with their marketing and promotions. We will only buy what we want. I decided to purchase Little Big League, and I looked around to find it. The long tail phenomenon lets us decide exactly what we want, see which sellers are offering the best price and service, and purchase accordingly.

It affects where we buy because gradually, consumers will be less and less likely to make the trip to an actual store. Why would a consumer travel to a brick-and-mortar establishment to come home empty handed, or pay even more if they are even lucky enough to find what they are looking for? I used to buy DVDs exclusively from Best Buy. Now, however, I am going to look at overstock.com first. It is much easier to breeze through a few web sites, find the exact product you are looking for, and buy it for half the price.

Affecting what we buy is the biggest impact the long tail effect has. It simply gives us a wider selection. Obscure, generally unpopular, and old media products that are taken off the shelves, and probably discontinued, at major retailers are immortal when being sold by Internet companies who need only a digital picture of the product and a couple copies in their huge storage warehouse to offer it to millions of people. As addressed earlier, the long tail era has ushered in an age of much lower prices. With tax and shipping, Little Big League was going to cost me about fifteen dollars on Barnes & Noble's web site. On overstock.com it was a little over seven dollars. The shift in pricing as the long tail takes control will be considerable.

All of this has yet to be seen. But I think that the long tail will have some very significant effects in the future. Companies, especially those on the Internet, who base their survival on those media products that make up the long tail, will bring the decline of larger chain retailers like Best Buy and Borders. This will, in turn, lower the price of such goods and increase the variety of items available.

Lastly, all of these changes in the management, economics, and content of media will bring a shift in who provides our media. The big budget studios and the major record labels will not be able to dominate if smaller companies can make just as much money by selling their products on long tail oriented web sites. Even though the long tail phenomenon is in its earliest stages of development, it is definitely growing in the consumer world and will definitely have significant ramifications in several layers of the media industry.

My authentic, coveted bag, I will not forsake you. Let no one person cast aside the miracle of your Armani presence in exchange for a brown pleather bag with squiggly insignia resembling Y S L. Let the powers of branding sweep across middle earth, and ignite the hearts of the uninformed and rogue Chinese spenders who rapaciously banter down prices, intently attracted by the handbag that can be gotten inexpensively or thrown-in to offset a price, rather than desire with the fire of a thousand hells you, the flawless replica, that so eloquently speaks to my Occidental albeit discount-shopper self like a command issued from the heavens. You must create your identity! Create! Create!'

Need Creation

Creating a need for luxury brands in China is not a simple matter of transferring the global demand for luxury items into a new market - it requires an overhaul of cultural perception. Haier is a global Chinese brand, but is it sexy? Not exactly, and it is branding that can spin the profit of product recognition into surefooted market advantage. But if sex sells, branding in the Chinese market brings in to play an interesting question and even a prophesy about this private and closed-off world "opening" to the world. The world is coming to China through the open door but is China ready for Paris Hilton and Carl's Junior?

So Many Choices

What choices should be presented to Chinese consumers and in what context? Given the unbridled buying power teeming within middle earth, it is no surprise that branding wants to happen there. Branding is sex-y. But, one has to wonder how many Chinese consumers are as intently aware of Prada as their Western cousins, given the unparalleled number of designer replicas worried on busy shoulders in Beijing, all bearing nonsensical insignia like banners on the shoulders of the uninitiated.

Come One, Come All

There is no doubt that East and West alike are afloat in a sea of complexities that shape purchasing decisions. The answer is complex but one that marketers and CEO's are ready to untangle. Y S L is an accepted codename among brand-savvy consumers signaling "high-caliber lifestyle" or "reckless spender". How mesmerizing to marketers it must be when the North American consumer enter a market, and on the spot purchases their must-have fall bag, for then the true power of branding is as familiar as smog at Beijing dawn. Westerners will not leave without The Bag regardless of price tag. Conversely, the Chinese denizen cum consumer will leave easily with several insignificant bags, replica or not, and still enough cash-in-hand to stretch their purchasing power-experience into several tomorrows.

Bargain, or Brand - You Choose

The nub of it lies therein, nestled cantankerously between impulse, vanity purchases and the power and glory of buying Western merch for a song. At the psychological root of the Western versus Eastern consumer experience there is a difference of identity. Marketers have a challenge at hand in the creation of "The Must Have" purchases that have been skillfully striking at the core of western identity since Ford first swept Americans away in a modern, conspicuous consumption roar.

China Will Demonstrate Its Success

Catch phrases like "life-style purchases" come to mind, and Chinese CEO's and marketing executives need to delve deep into the beating hearts of their consumers to find therein a clue to successful branding in China. Western identity is cloaked in consumer choice, each individual a potential canvas whose identity need be dressed-up or down in label choices that speak volumes about personal values, success, and sex. What the world stage has past proven time and again is the bizarre changeability of people's perceived needs in the global, cult of manufactured desire. This sounds like a stretch for first and second, generation party members whose identity was wrapped in the identity of a socialist dream, or does it?