The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

I’m totally amazed (and a little embarrassed) by the amount of conversation generated by my laundry situation both offline and online (especially on Twitter).

Now, some of my friends are suggesting that I get myself some life-casting equipment and convert this blog into a video reality show!

First, I never intended this experiment to become a reality show; a year of my life is worth more than that. Insights into why we consume? Yes! A new way to live a simple(r) life? Yes! A multi-million dollar book deal? Yes! A reality show? No way!

Second, after my 60 hour work week, and my other online avatars, I’m finding it difficult to find time to write even one post a day. Even thinking about doing a live video show is madness.

Third, even if I had the time and the inclination to turn this experiment into a reality show, who would want to watch it? I’m not particularly attractive (not in a Paris Hilton way, anyways), I live a rather simple life (no, really, I do), I’ll be living an even more simple life (as you’ll find out) and I don’t intend to write really personal posts about my love life here (I have another, less visible, blog for that). So, who’ll want to watch videos of me making cheese + banana + capsicum sandwiches for dinner every night?

We buy things because it is easier to buy things than ask for things.

As children, we have to ask for everything we want (or even need).

When we grow up, start making money, we find out that we don’t have to ask for anything anymore, because we can always buy what we want.

Over time, we become so used to buying everything we want that we forget how to ask for anything.

For instance, for more than seven years now, I haven’t really asked anyone for anything, without offering an immediate or delayed quid pro quo.

Only when you can’t buy what you want, you learn to ask for what you need.

Then you learn that your needs are much lower than your wants.

Only when I gathered the courage to ask for a couch to crash on, did I realize that I don’t really need a five start hotel room for a good night’s sleep.

But it is difficult to ask for what we need.

Which is why we prefer to buy what we want.

Okay, here’s some good news.

The folks from Oxford Bookstore are actually considering ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ as a valid entry in their e-Author contest, even though they will leave the final decision to the appraisal committee.

From:
Date: Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 5:51 PM
Subject: Re: e-Author Entry: The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption
To: Gaurav Mishra

Thanks for submitting your entry for e-Author version 5.0.

Please confirm that the entry sent for the writing program is original and unpublished. We might not be able to consider your entry because it’s already been self-published through your blog. We will leave it to the decision of our Appraisal Committee.

Best Regards,

Program Coordinator
e-Author version 5.0
Write a book and get published
Oxford Bookstore

To satisfy their concerns about the book being self-published on the blog, I pointed out that I have put up a very thoughtful copyright notice in the sidebar —

From: Gaurav Mishra
Date: Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: e-Author Entry: The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption
To: eauthor@apeejaygroup.com

Hi,

Thanks for considering my entry for the contest.

The number one question everyone is asking me ever since I have gone off consumption is different from the number one question I have been asking myself.

While everyone else is consumed with the scientific curiosity of how will I decide what’s a necessity, I’m worried about the more immediate issue of what to do on my next date.

Consumption is a social thing and, of all our social interactions, dating is the one most tied up with buying things.

Let’s do a quick visualization exercise to establish this. Please don’t read beyond the next paragraph until you have completed this exercise.

I want you to close your eyes, breathe deeply, and think of a perfect first date for two minutes. Think of the best first date you have ever had. Or, think of how you want your next date to turn out. Or, if you are married, or off dating, think of your favorite first date sequence from a movie or an ad.

Your time starts now.

…

…

…

I’m reasonably sure that your perfect first date sequence included at least some of these images –

Can you guess what is number one question everyone is asking me ever since I have gone off consumption?

No, it’s not “but why have you gone off consumption?”, or “but how will you live/ work/ date/ network if you go off consumption?”, or “but how will you survive without eating out/ going out?”, or even “but why should we care if you have gone off consumption?”.

The number one question everyone is asking me ever since I have gone off consumption is: “when you say ‘no shopping except for necessities’, how do you decide what’s a necessity?”

Clearly, for readers of this blog, scientific curiosity is much more important than concern for my sanity!

So, how will I decide what’s a necessity and what isn’t? Honestly, I don’t know. I know that it sounds evasive to say that “it depends”, but it really does, on time, place, person and context.

In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of the experiment for me is to “discover” what I think of as a necessity and how it changes with context. That, more than anything else, is the one big insight I’ll look out for.