Who are we? What have we become? To brand managers, we are empty souls craving to be engaged, members of a “segment” seeking a more perfect “experience.”
View, click, buy, touch – whatever you do produces a cheerful call for comments. To provide “feedback.” To share your experience with other customers and would-be customers – and to ponder other customers’ feedback.
People who sell stuff think that our lives are so empty that we care about everything they do. That we will voluntarily enter their realm. That we want a relationship with them. That our shopping experience dominates our consciousness.
We live in an era of feedback frenzy. (click on the picture)
Think of human purpose as it once was – scraping roots from the soil and hewing villages out of forests – and is today for millions of people fighting for their lives against desperate odds.
Now consider what we have become... that you – a person with a past and future, who works with human beings and exists in the natural world – are asked to extract energy and breath from the fleeting moments of your life – to express your feelings toward a stapler.
Yes, it has come to this. Brand marketing principles demand it. Best practices require that nicely-smelling men and women sit around a conference table and scheme to suck you into their tribe as a loyal member. 
Please review our stapler! Compact? Easy to use? No jams? Well, no mas. I don’t care how valuable the data is, how polite the request – I’m not giving up any more of my data. No matter how fortifying it is to my self-esteem, I refuse to submit my reflections on the functioning of the stapler.
From now on, I'm not telling. If I buy an avocado and it’s rich and creamy inside and a charming woman with a clipboard comes up and asks me to describe my shopping experience, I’ll call the cops. No marketer is getting any more of my life and soul.
brandsinger
One more thing: I wonder if they could make staples out of multi-colored wire? That would be fun. They could try to muffle the clicking sound… Oh, about that hinge…
2 comments:
The danger with "real people" providing feedback is that people are, in essence, complete idiots. Whereas in the old days you could read inflated product claims and then mentally discount them (great = good, fastest = faster), now you need to rummage through hundreds of "reviews" by individuals who (it often seems) have failed to try, or even buy, the product. If you're lucky, as you note, there might be one erudite and pitiful soul who will share stapler-related wisdom based on a long life of affixing one sheaf to another. Personally, I'd rather put the unproven, unheralded stapler to my forehead - and test its mettle.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply -- and supplement to my own thoughts. I was lamenting the galling affront of asking for my comments on a stapler -- as if I were ready to write up a review as soon as I finished sending in critical opinions of my kitchen broom.
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