a general example of perfect elasticity. Credit: commons.wikimedia.org
During the day, I tried to look at the network service provider’s side of the brouhaha, wondering why they should want to bless me with so much bonus data?
I BELIEVE THEY WANT TO INFLUENCE THE CHOICES I MAKE
Every company wants you to choose its product when faced with myriad others. So does my network service provider. Because the income we all earn is not likely to be increased soonest, any profit making company wants you to believe that if it increases its price, it wouldn’t make even a little hole in your pocket.But it would for this particular product: access to the internet based on a data plan. If they increased the price of the service, even by a naira, I’d go onto Google to search for the prices of competing products. They are aplenty here in Lagos. If so many customers do the same thing, then it would create a big hole in the profit basket of that company.
So they’d rather not think of increasing the price of the service. Rather, by blessing me with a huge data bonus, they want me to increase my spending such that if and when the price increases, (inflation is a given in life just as air for breathing is), I’d never notice. Why? Because I was over-satisfied and no other company can provide such.
Satisfied I was. Would they succeed? I thought they were succeeding. I had to watch it. If I played to their game and increased my spending, then I’d create a dependency on the bonus data that would become parasitic if long running.
I’d rather not fall into dependency when so many other substitutes are around the corner.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE UNIQUE
I was at Trade Fair this week and someone told me he could surf the internet for free. I snorted. The price of the internet access was enough for my pocket. It was not free but I was content that I would not have to wonder if free came with a proxy or a dubious VPN network.In a world where mobile Internet was becoming commonplace, quote or unquote me, I thought I would queue up for them, plus the bonus data, mind you, any day and anytime.
And ironically, if you’d ask me I’d have replied: “Yes, if they gave higher bonus data, I’d have preferred it, and could have used it, even if there was the trap of dependency around the corner.”
LIFE IS NOT AS SIMPLE THOUGH
Well, even if they wanted me to believe that if there was a little disturbance in the economy and they had to increase the price a little I wouldn’t mind, two or three months later, I might begin to notice. I’d rather they do not. I thought they would win the game if they increased my bonus data up to a point where if there were economic disturbances, my spending would neither increase nor decrease. Then, life would be simple for me.But at what point is that? When I was supposed never to be satisfied? Waiting for when I might be asked to answer some survey questions: “Just a minute, please”, the next time I log onto my account?
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