To elaborate

Ask and ye shall receive. Especially when the subject strikes me as particularly juicy at the time. So just what in the blazing blue brassieres of perdition did I mean when I so casually wed the concept of "personal insecurity" with "profit"?

I was alluding to the fact that one of the easiest routes to gathering astoundingly disgusting sums of money is to generate a bottomless need to address some perceived personal flaw or failing. If you can cause someone to feel just the right degree of marred, they will go to surprising lengths to "fix" it. If it's too minor, it will not carry enough priority to have importance, thus the demand will be less than ideal. If it's too major, it will overwhelm their perception which will lead them to think their issue is too expansive to remedy without drastic means if at all, thus demand will again be suboptimal as many will unconsciously assume the remedy is out of their grasp.

But give them that sense of a something about themselves that is sharply displeasing while also having a simple correction and you will have whetted an appetite that is almost irresistible, especially if the remedy is something that requires repeated use. For those poised to exploit this demand, it translates into frequent and repeated sales to a market that will remain stable as long as they both continue to feel they have that specific deficit and the product addresses it.

In some cases, products will be put forth targeted to a particular insecurity with the design of saturating the market in a rush, generating an abrupt surge of sales, and then moving to the next product. Repeat sales are not a pertinent element of their business model. Generally, these are also the products which will have little to no utility in addressing whatever they are supposed to. This would be the "Scorched Earth" plan; showy, dramatic, thorough, and expended immediately.

Much more stable are the products targeted to make measured in-roads into the consumer base. In this case, their plan revolves around subsequent sales to the initial use of their product. This model desires to engender customer loyalty either through dependency or consistency. The proceeds are not as dramatically immediate as with the previous model, but the "Ice-cream Man/Pusher" plan has the benefits of longevity and usually does not "poison the well" as it were.

So the bones of the concept have been laid out. The general mechanisms have been fleshed over the skeleton like muscles describing how it articulates and lending it more shape. Now we just need to give it a skin, a face that can identify the species. There are many of those.

As readily recognizable as antelope upon a savanna and as diverse in variety are the profits linked to aesthetic insecurity. From the delicate and demure springboks of facial concealers and base powders to the stolid and daunting wildebeest of plastic surgery, cosmetics provide a prodigious volume of profit off a perception that there things that might be improved or augmented.

Related, but with a slightly more sinister reputation might be the weight loss industry. Artificially inflated or not, the populous carries a substantial awareness for body shape and weight, thus a tremendous amount of money they are willing to part with to assist them against their flavors of weight dissatisfaction. It should be unsurprising that since people prefer to exert the least amount of effort, physically, mentally, or adjusting habits, that this would be a variety that has experienced significant numbers of "Scorched Earth" products.

Those two categories only peripherally touch my area of profession. The species that roams this brand of watering hole are specialists, almost aggressive parasites in function. For all that such practices as anal bleaching and labiaplasty are beheld with shock and amazement like some exceedingly exotic species, they are also at the least common end of the spectrum.

Instead, I usually encounter items aimed at men's crotches and the implied expectations of how it should function. Pumps, creams, sprays, pills, rings, I've even run across a device that was nothing more than a variation of a tongue depressor and a couple rubber bands; every single one implying it is the one true way to sexual bliss. I routinely discover items aimed at women's plumbing as well, along with the implied expectations of how it should be formed, mostly promising she'll be so tight, he'll need a shoe-horn to get it in. So in addition to the creams, sprays, and lotions, there are exercising eggs, calipers to clench, and vaginal suppositories.

Consequently, it is very well established that if there is someone with some insecurity about themselves, there is at one person prepared to use it to leverage open their wallet. The subtext of this is that often the one looking for the solution is disinterested or unconcerned about what sorts of outcome they're risking, at most assuming it will have no effect whatsoever.

There is no argument the returns the manufacturers make on these products are insanely lucrative. The simple power of belief will provide most with perceived results. If it doesn't work, there are always new things to try and few individuals are willing to openly complain about the efficacy of a product for fear of implying their sexual function is sub par. In more than a few cases, ingredients can cause unpleasant reactions. Some items, such as penis pumps, are capable of causing permanent physical damage.

Nevertheless, people take run those risks every day. The capacity for the average customer to feel that it can't happen to them, it'll happen to that ever faceless "someone else" staggers me. What price vanity?

Caveat emptor.