When was the last time you gave yourself permission to window shop? I didn’t say hit the nearest big city mall or giant hardware store to purchase tools for the house, garden or to spend money because it feels so much better than channel surfing on the flat screen.
I’m talking 100% real window shopping. You enter a store, ask the employee questions, compare the product with cheaper or more expensive brands, bend it, pull it, roll it around on the floor, pretend that it’s already yours and figure out how you’re going to make it part of your unwritten chapters, thank the sales rep for their time then escape without purchasing it.
Spur of the moment impulse buying has crippled the country. We’ve allowed computer companies to continue making programs and pieces parts that instantly become outdated the moment they’re installed. Personally I call it the Doritos Big Business Act of the 1980’s where the advertisement always suggested, “Go ahead and eat one…we’ll make more.”
Look at what’s taking place at Taco Bell; nicknamed the Where’s the Beef suit they’ve been accused of allegedly not using 100% USDA beef. Like true leaders the fast food restaurant peacefully responded with a full page newspaper ad that stated their beef is no different than what you buy at the supermarket.
We as a people want things now. If it can’t be attained we put the car in D and move forward until someone or something delivers the product at the tremendously high rate of speed demanded. I’m extremely guilty of this; the heart doctor wanted my cholesterol down to an extremely safe 70; the product came with ear shattering side effects to which I ignored until I became a victim. Sharply questioning the pharmacist he calmly replied, “We fill orders then offer information on every bottle and package that suggests possible side effects the medication is connected to, we cannot tell you that a doctor has made an error.”
I can’t even warn you about the medication because they’re an advertiser…all I can say is do your homework. Read every package and ask questions until you are fully satisfied. Stand at the pharmacy and compare notes with other patients. The moment you stop searching is the day you’ll experience a reaction to the medication creating your new found reality.
Today’s writing isn’t a gripe session. It’s not to expose or undertake a mission to Free Willie. (You do remember the movie about the whale right?)
When was the last time you physically endured a moment of doing nothing more than window shopping? Not on the web or through other means of cut me free from human touch social networking but hands on I have a question about this product, can I please try a small sample before I pour what little money I make into the success of your business.
When is a situation or product worth criticizing?
Author Seth Godin writes, “A remarkable product or service is like a purple cow. Brown cows are boring; purple ones are worth mentioning. Those ideas spread; those organizations grow. The essence of what’s happening in the market today revolves around creating a purple cow.”
I’m far from being a political junky but in the past 48 months I’ve heard more about a Tea Party Movement than the D’s, R’s and L’s. A political writer shares, “Every election needs to be like November 2010; there needs to be constant change in leadership so that we don’t get bogged down with decision makers who’ve become professional takers and not giver's.”
Seth continues to write, “Boring ideas don’t spread. Boring organizations don’t grow.”
I see that quote and instantly think of four marketing geniuses; Madonna, Gene Simmons of KISS, The Beatles and Elvis Presley; true masters in the art of reinventing yourself during the days of post showmanship. Guess whose getting stuck with the bill? We are because everything’s a collectable. I have four KISS Jack n The Boxes for no reason other than the kid in me saw these cheap plastic objects in a box and said, “OMG!”
Not a single drop of blood or desire to window shop flowed through me. I’m the one circus people attact, “There’s sucker in every crowd.”
Rollingstone Magazine posted a story in 2010 that didn’t criticize but unveiled what’s taking place at concert venues and why you can’t find up close seats at a fairly decent price. The musicians are now in the ticket selling business. They’re allotted a certain amount of tickets per show…they send out a team to make them money. Legal or illegal?
Through the process of trying to create the purple cow the mothers and fathers of invention have mastermind a plan that feeds one of the seven needs of survival: want so that one can feel accepted.
By window shopping you learn to identify the purple cow in every crowd. Walk into your competitor’s office, study their web page and visit places where the product comes to life. Be a potential client. What makes you a great leader isn’t the money spent on the ingredients to make the product. In the book the Art of Selling unveiled is McDonald’s passion to keep family first; they don’t need a great burger to be the best; their secret; clean bathrooms.
Window shop!!!
I’ll always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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