Marketing terminology (Does "affordable" & "Cheap" mean the same thing?)

[Rruchi man]

Business people and marketers need to add more clarity to these terminologies in business which i think are often misunderstood by some customers, that is- one to mean exact same thing as the other.

The terms are "Affordable & Cheap" which vendors often use during marketing.

"Affordable" IMO means that a certain commodity may not be cheap but affordable depending on the financial class of the customer, While "Cheap" simply describes a commodity as affordable to everyone.

Have you ever been in a situation where you misinterpreted a marketer's advertisement that said "Affordable" and then you went ahead to assume it meant "Cheap" only to make inquiry and find out otherwise?

[franky1]

nope not the same

if someones income is say $500 a week

anything under $500 is affordable compared to buying a $25k car in full in one lump sum or spread over a year at 0% interest(stil over $500 a week) ... because anything below $500 is within the reasonable amount to buy it without wrecking any long term wealth/value/lifestyle change required to purchase it.

however cheap is where the item in question is priced at a near cost of production(cheap) vs speculated to an extreme high price above production(premium)

EG
buying a playstation5 (using $600+) for $400 is cheap.
but buying a train ticket(usually $10 off-peak) for $50 is not cheap. yet this is more 'affordable' compared to a PS5

[fiulpro]

Affordable is ever changing.
What a person 'A' can afford, it won't be possible for person 'B', their lifestyles, jobs, payments are all different therefore at the end of the day this can be used as a variable term.

On the other hand Cheap precisely means that the market price is essentially lower than the market price of same things. Manufacturing plays a long role as well in that, items made in china are known to have a cheaper price around the world, items made from Germany are comparatively better Hands down, therefore it's more related to manufacturing and the price as well.

[StanCrypt]

Affordable is wholly dependent on your level of luxury, being able to afford a certain goods or services doesn't make it cheap.

Cheap on the other had is kinda universal, indicating that a good number of people can afford it.

its low in price and could be low in quality as well

But it all depend on an individual or groups perspective 

[TheNineClub]

I think you defined it really well, but what I think also happened is that marketers are using cheep way less than affordable because cheep has that negative connotation, as in something has been made poorley without QC, cheep materials etc.. Affordable signals to the customer that this is a good product, it was just made in a way that would lower the cost to the end consumer. I  reality, affirdable can also be poorly made.

[lovesmayfamilis]

With the word "cheap," people have associations with the low quality of the product. That is, we can not demand from the product those qualities that we would like to see, since we understand that the thing is cheap.

But if a company reports "cheap," that is, affordable prices associated with some kind of promotions, sales, etc., then everyone understands that, in this case, the purchase can be profitable for a good quality product since this is a temporary promotion.

[mk4]

I don't tend to overthink it too much. When a marketer calls something "affordable" or "cheap" then I mostly just think that whatever "thing" they're selling has a lower price compared to it's competitors. That's pretty much it, as something being affordable/cheap or not is totally subjective anyway.

[Charles-Tim]

"Affordable" IMO means that a certain commodity may not be cheap but affordable depending on the financial class of the customer, While "Cheap" simply describes a commodity as affordable to everyone.

Affordable is used for products that people can afford to buy and most of the time applies to products that are not expensive.

Opposite of affordable is: costly, expensive.

[livingfree]

Definitely, like the one about "save/discount up to".

Terms and conditions are being applied but that's part of marketing and they really are ticking our minds to be interested on it and get our attentions.

Anyway, at the end of the day, we are still the one to think whether we'll purchase something or not whether it's affordable and cheap or expensive.

[xSkylarx]

For me the difference is in terms of quality. (Ex. medicine)

When marketers say affordable, they mean that their product is easy to afford that can compete or has the same quality with other expensive brands.

But when you say it's cheap, it's like degrading the quality of the product just for someone to be able to afford it.

[tbterryboy]

Business people and marketers need to add more clarity to these terminologies in business which i think are often misunderstood by some customers, that is- one to mean exact same thing as the other.

The terms are "Affordable & Cheap" which vendors often use during marketing.

"Affordable" IMO means that a certain commodity may not be cheap but affordable depending on the financial class of the customer, While "Cheap" simply describes a commodity as affordable to everyone.

Have you ever been in a situation where you misinterpreted a marketer's advertisement that said "Affordable" and then you went ahead to assume it meant "Cheap" only to make inquiry and find out otherwise?

I don't know about you but I think both of them are the same. Cheap or affordable both would also depend on the capacity of the buyers as these terms can sometimes be used on those kinda expensive items like mobile phones.

No matter how the advertisers say that the phone is cheap and affordable, there are still extremely poor people that can't afford to own one of those even on their lifetime. For them there are more important things that needs to be prioritized first like food. Indeed that marketers need to be careful on the terminologies that they are using as a small mistake can matter a lot to some of us and this could discourage us to patronize their products.

[naira]

"Affordable" IMO means that a certain commodity may not be cheap but affordable depending on the financial class of the customer, While "Cheap" simply describes a commodity as affordable to everyone.

The simple definition you said above is self-explanatory. That the term or slogan Affordable and Cheap is an attraction to label a price for goods that you can get at the price of goods in general in the market. But once again, this kind of slogan also does not fully reflect that the type of goods is really cheap to buy one type or in the form of a complete package.

[milewilda]

For me the difference is in terms of quality. (Ex. medicine)

When marketers say affordable, they mean that their product is easy to afford that can compete or has the same quality with other expensive brands.

But when you say it's cheap, it's like degrading the quality of the product just for someone to be able to afford it.

There are things which called affordable cant really be still able to afford on buying it (lets say having some huge discount) which is totally different when you do talk about the "cheap"
word which i do totally agree on what you had illustrated on here and basing it up on medicine but there are other things which could really be put up an example.
When we do talk about cheap it wont also be necessarily that its quality is really that low thats why we do have that good buys or great deals or something worthy purchase.
but in overall they are a little bit the same on general sense since this do talk about low price or something in that space.

[lucates]

With the word "cheap," people have associations with the low quality of the product. That is, we can not demand from the product those qualities that we would like to see, since we understand that the thing is cheap.

But if a company reports "cheap," that is, affordable prices associated with some kind of promotions, sales, etc., then everyone understands that, in this case, the purchase can be profitable for a good quality product since this is a temporary promotion.

Definitely, both cheap and affordable have different meanings for different people. Even the 'cheap' varies from people to people, the same as the 'affordability'. In marketing techniques, these terms are important. These are attention grabbers and make people think about the fear of missing out. So it makes people urge to buy or sell before thinking.

[Zlantann]

Have you ever been in a situation where you misinterpreted a marketer's advertisement that said "Affordable" and then you went ahead to assume it meant "Cheap" only to make inquiry and find out otherwise?

Marketers are always desperate to sell their products by all means. And they would adopt any strategy or terminology to convince you to buy their products. Sometimes most of these marketers are not well grounded in the English language, hence you would always experience misuse of some terminologies. A product is cheap when it is sold with little or no profit. Sometimes cheap products are sold below the cost price. One can also ascertain if the product is cheap when the price is compared to other competitive products. If the price is below the cost of alternatives, then it is cheap.

Affordability is relative. It is based on the buying power of each individual. The rich would be able to afford more expensive products than the poor. To the poor, a product might be expensive because they cannot afford it, but the rich would gladly acquire them because it is affordable for them. It's always good to always go for products you can afford and not for cheap ones. In my locality, most cheap goods are either close to their expiration date or low quality.   

[Majestic-milf]

Some marketers sometimes have used this words to confuse buyers. A good can actually be cheap, but using the guise of packaging, they tell the person it's affordable and even go as far giving reasons why the buyer must have it.
 
 Sometimes rich people end up buying cheap, low quality goods because of the package and where convince it is a good quality product.

[witcher_sense]

I have always thought that "cheap" has a negative notation as being a thing of poor quality, made of low-quality materials and that has a very short and even unpredictable lifespan. Not only goods, but the same can also be applied to services: providing cheap services often implies a low quality of outcome, and people who use those cheap services should expect that the end result may well be different from the desired one. Affordable, on the other hand, means that the price of a good or service not only should seem reasonable for everyone, including the poor, the middle-class, and the rich but should also be perfectly justified. An affordable good should be of high- quality, made of high- or at least medium-quality materials, and should have a reasonable lifespan, whereas an affordable service should bring a desired outcome to the customer.

[Fortify]

Business people and marketers need to add more clarity to these terminologies in business which i think are often misunderstood by some customers, that is- one to mean exact same thing as the other.

The terms are "Affordable & Cheap" which vendors often use during marketing.

"Affordable" IMO means that a certain commodity may not be cheap but affordable depending on the financial class of the customer, While "Cheap" simply describes a commodity as affordable to everyone.

Have you ever been in a situation where you misinterpreted a marketer's advertisement that said "Affordable" and then you went ahead to assume it meant "Cheap" only to make inquiry and find out otherwise?

As others have said, cheap and affordable are very different things to very different people. To a billionaire a yacht is affordable but to most people it is so expensive it is unattainable.  However cheap can be much more relatable to all people and used in similar contexts, like if the aforementioned two groups of people saw a 1oz gold bar going for $10 they would likely both say it is cheap - because that is a bargain price.