The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

In a recent post, I naively wondered –

if there is a way for a brand to make people happy, and benefit from it, without asking them to buy anything.

In a world that will soon be driven by the “economics of free”, that may not be a trivial question anymore.

Then I read this paragraph from Paco Underhill’s ‘Why We Buy’ –

When does a shopper actually possess something? Technically, of course, it happens at the instant that the item is exchanged for money — at the register. But the register is the least pleasing part of the store; nobody is savoring the joy of possession at that moment. In fact, all that is experienced is loss (of money) and pain (of waiting in line, of waiting for the credit card approval, of waiting for the clerk to get the thing into the bag so you can leave). Clearly, possession is an emotional and spiritual process, not a technical one. Possession begins when the shopper’s senses start to latch onto the object. It begins in the eyes and then in the touch. Once the thing is in your hand, or on your back, or in your mouth, you can be said to have begun the process of taking it. Paying for it is a mere technicality, so the sooner a thing is placed in a shopper’s hand, or the easier it is for the shopper to try it or sip it or drive it around the block, the more easily it will change ownership, from the seller to the buyer.

‘Why We Buy‘ by Paco Underhill is one of my all time favorite books on marketing, but, it was only when I reached chapter twelve — The Sensual Shopper — that I remembered why. Here’s Paco Underhill’s ode to shopping from pages 161-167 of ‘Why We Buy‘ –

What is shopping?

I don’t mean what is buying. I don’t mean what is entering a public place where goods are kept until they can be exchanged for money. I definitely do not mean what is retailing, or what is commerce, or what is trade.

I mean what is shopping? Who does it, and how? How does one go about this shopping activity?

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s stipulate that shopping is more than the simple, dutiful acquisition of whatever is absolutely necessary to one’s life. It’s more than what we call the “grab and go” — you need cornflakes, you grab the cornflakes, you pay for the cornflakes, and haveaniceday. The kind of activity I mean involves experiencing the portion of the world that has been deemed for sale, using our senses — sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing — as the basis for choosing this and rejecting that. It’s the sensory aspect of the decision making process that’s most intriguing because how else do we experience anything? But it’s especially critical in this context because virtually all unplanned purchase — and many planned ones, too — come as a result of the shopper seeing, touching, smelling, or tasting something that promises pleasure, if not total fulfillment.

While men may get a thrill from the experience of paying, women love the experience of shopping itself. Paco Underhill explains why on page 116-117 of ‘Why We Buy‘ —

For many women, there are psychological and emotional aspects to shopping that are just plain absent in most men. Women can go into a kind of reverie when they shop — they become absorbed in the ritual of seeking and comparing, of imagining and envisioning merchandise in use. They then coolly tally up the pros and the cons of this purchase over that, and once they’ve found what they want at the proper price, they buy it. Women generally care that they do well in even the smallest act of purchasing, and they take pride in their ability to select the perfect thing, whether it’s a cantaloupe or a house or a husband.

Not that there’s anything superficial about the female relationship with consumption. In fact, it’s women, not men, who plumb the metaphysics of shopping — they illuminate how we human beings go through life searching, examining, questioning, and then acquiring and assuming and absorbing the best of what we see. At that exalted level, shopping is a transforming experience, a method of becoming a newer, perhaps even slightly improved person. The products you buy turn you into that other, idealized version of yourself: that dress makes you beautiful, this lipstick makes you kissable, that lamp turns your house into an elegant showplace.

‘Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping‘ by Paco Underhill is one of my all time favorite books on marketing, but it is a misnomer — most of the book is about ‘how’ we buy instead of ‘why’. Here’s a rare excerpt from page 96 of ‘Why We Buy‘ that does talk about why —

Shopping means different things to different people at different times. We use shopping as therapy, reward, bribery, pastime, as an excuse to get out of the house, as a way to troll for potential loved ones, as entertainment, as a form of education or even worship, as a way to kill time. There are compulsive shoppers doing serious damage to their bank accounts and credit rating who use shopping as a cry for help. (Then they shop around for twelve step programs.) And how many disreputable public figures end up arrested for shoplifting small, inexpensive items?