Thank you Pinoy Life @ Large for refreshing our Marketing 101.
“There is a difference between tying and bundling. Bundling is done to encourage you to purchase a product…tying, on the other hand, is when you have two unrelated products and you cannot buy one without buying the other,” according to blogger Arpee Lazaro of Pinoy @ Large.
Who the hell cares, you say?
Well, if you were forced to pay for a PHP50 SM E-Plus card just so you can watch Spiderman 2 on IMAX at Mall of Asia, you’d be pissed, too.
On Labor Day, Lazaro was charged PHP500 instead of the net ticket price of PHP450.
“So I ask[ed] the ticket sales lady if I can opt out of the E-Plus card but she said, ‘Sorry sir, kasama po yan sa ticket eh. Magagamit po ninyo yan, load-an nyo lang tapos po may 10% discount kayo sa snacks pag ginamit nyo na. Pwede nyo rin po ipambayad yan sa sine.’
“However, she did confirm that I had to load money/credits into the card. Yes, it does sound nifty and handy, but it turns out that if I didn’t want to buy it, I had no choice because it was tied with the movie ticket,” he writes.
Lazaro has complained to the Department of Trade and Industry.
