This post continues the discussion on The Value started earlier. I encourage you to read the first post of the series in order to understand what will be talked about here. Today I’m going to tell you why merely having things you desired don’t bring you the amount of joy you thought they would before you bought them and why fulfilled dreams are nowhere near as fun as we imagined them to be.
The purpose of the thing
Going back to the ancient times, different things were created to make our lives easier. Clothes were made to keep us warm, various tools designed to help us doing our daily tasks. This all worked fine and served the purpose until we started buying those things for fun. These days our households are overwhelmed with useless gadgets, wardrobes are cluttered with dresses and shoes we don’t even wear and so on. It is one thing that those items cost us valuable resources to acquire them, but the other most important fact is that they now take even more of our resources, time and money, to keep them in order. What happened is we basically bought ourselves a job of managing those things that we thought would make our lives more exciting, except they didn’t. Why? Because we forgot about the main purpose of those things which remained the same as it was back in the ancient times – to serve its owner. Everything that doesn’t fill this purpose is a waste. And waste doesn’t make your life better.
The emotional attachment
That’s where marketing companies come in. I mentioned earlier that nobody buys the product but the sensation it brings to them in Subject And Object article. This is exactly what happens when you buy a certain thing based on marketing hype and than experience inevitable buyer’s remorse once you realize it is nothing special. To avoid there is a simple rule to followe – pay for the quality and not for the brand.
Why Prada still cool
The power of big brands plays a big role in making you like certain things. Once you understood that your new Prada sneakers are not many times better than those from other manufacturers as their price suggests, there is still one thing to keep you from making a refund on the expensive purchase you’ve just made which is a public opinion. Because the power of such popular brand as Prada which are widely known around the world is so strong, the people start to recognize their products and appreciate the wearer. That’s where you start to get compliments that in turn boost your self-esteem and make you feel good about the purchase. Without them your reasoning for making such a purchase would wear off much faster.
A lesson for today
As a customer buy only the stuff you actually need and base your judgment on quality of the product, not the hype surrounding it.
As an online marketer look for ways to increase the emotional attachment of your product by listing benefits of the product your buyer will enjoy. This shouldn’t involve lying. If your product doesn’t oeffer enough benefits to justify it for the buyer then find another product to sell.