Knowing how to buy is a very interesting skill. To some it might be vile consumerism, but since we can’t stop buying things, we can at least learn to make smart purchases. And this was the premise of the De compras o DeC series, a television program that was produced and broadcast by Channel Once in the 2000s as part of the programming for children.
As with El Diván de Valentina, many lessons could also be drawn from the De Compras series, both for the consumer public and for entrepreneurs.
If you are a millennial, that in that decade you were in your childhood or adolescence, and you came to see this series, surely you remember that every Friday sharp at 4:00 p.m. this program surprised us with a new episode that lasted between 20 and 25 minutes. .
Under the slogan “Check it out!”, Paula, Omar, Mayte, Rhual, Fernanda and Jorge, the children who were part of the DeC team, through calculations, comparisons, exercises, tests and brief interviews, not only made known interesting and unknown facts about a variety of products, but also taught to make a more intelligent consumption. This series would surely be very useful to us in times like Good End or Black Friday and Cyber Monday, although in reality whenever we buy a product or service.
Lessons for consumers
This series was quite a manual to learn how to make more informed purchases: the program began with a segment in which some price comparison was made between an external service and the acquisition of a product to obtain that service.
For example, the first chapter begins with the reflection and comparison that it was cheaper for children and young people at that time in the long term to buy video game consoles than to play every day in the then very popular slot machines that you could find in many establishments in your neighborhood.
In another of the sections of each broadcast of the program, a kind of anatomy of the products was made, in which it was explained, for example, what a barcode was and what it was used for, what the net content meant, what the nutritional information, among other elements of a product’s packaging.
in the segment December Services either Dec Points, it explained what conditions a service or establishment would have to meet in order to consider that it was suitable for consumers. For example, what conditions should a bank, a cinema or a skating rink have to qualify as good services.
There was another section in which the DeC team did a comparison between various brands of a product to see which one was of better quality. They considered aspects such as prices, features, benefits, they did tests (depending on the product) in laboratories and based on what they found, they drew conclusions as to which could be the most convenient product for the viewer.
In another brief segment of Shopping, a kind of survey was carried out on the characteristics of a product, comparing it with another similar one, and when giving the answer, they provided more information. For example, in which there was more milk, if in 10 liters of milk or in a kilo of cheese.
In the section Disadvantages of fashionpresented testimonials from children who, because they were fashionable, made purchases of clothes or services that in the end turned out to be unnecessary because they lost their validity over time.
in the segment Everything changes, there was talk of a product of daily use and a brief history of the product in question was presented. For example, they told the story of the products that preceded hair gel, a timeline of the evolution of video game consoles, or the history of chewing gum.
One of the funniest parts of the show were the parodies of commercials for fictional products, satirically inviting viewers to question what they saw in advertisements for various products. How can we forget the advertisement for Manchex detergent or *Z pens.
In the penultimate section of Shopping They tested a toy to see if it complied with the characteristics mentioned on the product’s packaging. In cases where the product failed, the DeC team would call customer service to report the product failure. If the toy delivered as promised, they would also call customer service to congratulate them. The idea was to teach the viewer to report failures of the products he purchased so that the brands could improve.
The program closed with the segment DeC recommends that you have a lot of fun, in which they gave ideas of what recreational and cultural activities could be done with a certain amount of money. For example, what can you do with 50 pesos and how much would you save by choosing one or another activity.
With all these sections, it was hoped that viewers, in this case children and their parents, would learn to learn more, compare, report faults with manufacturers and even report to Profeco when necessary and other actions to make more planned purchases and save money.
Shopping and the first marketing lessons
In case learning to consume in a better way seems little to you, this series surely also gave many of us our first marketing lessons.
In the section of the program called they know us very wellthe team Shopping He interviewed various experts to ask about some concepts or the reasons for certain actions of the brands.
Such is the case of the first chapter in which they interview a marketer to understand why brands use certain colors in their products and in their advertising, the same explanation that the children complement with some examples. What we now know is called color psychology. In addition, other chapters in which they explain why brands choose famous people for their advertising or how promotions were a way of generating engagement.
In addition to these first notions of marketing, Shopping He also left an important lesson for entrepreneurs: give the best service and the best products to your customers so that, in addition to continuing to prefer your brand, when comparing with your competition, they find your advantages and recommend them to other consumers.
The series only had one season of 14 episodes, but even so, his advice and information came to be very useful. I admit that this series influenced me a lot, because if I had not seen it, I would probably be a compulsive shopper with serious financial problems. And because if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have been passionate about marketing.
Rocio Reyes Communicologist specialized in science journalism and digital marketing. Curiosity leads this being with a cat personality to find links where apparently there are none. Whenever I can, I like to contribute even a bit of what I’ve learned. Fan of the world of entrepreneurship and MMA.