People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Themselves (2016)

Re:People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Th... by RangerScience on Monday May 22, 2017 @03:32AM (#14391693)

Interesting, and way more interesting than I first suspected!

I think this is case when you're trying to get new people into your market. Once they're in, they know enough that they do care about the features, but they also care enough to stick around to learn about those features.

It also plays interestingly with the Burning Man ethos. I was expecting an article on lifestyle marketing, which is one of the things the BM ethos is set against: you cannot buy a thing to be a person - but instead the article (to me) points out the sweet spot: Does your product help me be the person I'm trying to be?

The dev-style phrasing is maybe better: Buying products doesn't make me a good developer. Using (good) products clears blockers.

But, is that missing the effect of things that give you new capabilities?

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Re:People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Th... by orthoganol on Monday May 22, 2017 @03:52AM (#14391758)

Isn't paying burning man $500+ to go have this experience in the desert, and often hundreds more on costumes so you look the part, the epitome of "buying a thing to be a person"?

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Re:People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Th... by JammyDodger on Monday May 22, 2017 @04:10AM (#14391826)

Paying money to LARP as someone who wouldn't pay money for an identity. Pretty much sums up this century so far to me.

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Re:People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Th... by wsinks on Monday May 22, 2017 @04:57AM (#14392024)

Holy shit. Never thought about it that way.

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Re:People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Th... by RangerScience on Monday May 22, 2017 @01:24PM (#14395365)

I've never bought a costume and the (total) cost is easily comparable to an overseas trip of the same length.

The people I meet who do buy costumes are either a) putting on a literal show, like clowns in an audience or b) doing fashion photography out there.

Thing is, you can be the clown or the fashion model without the costume, but you can't be the clown or fashion model without the actions. The costume is a tool to improve that goal.

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Re:People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Th... by lprubin on Monday May 22, 2017 @09:52AM (#14393528)

You can buy the ticket and the costumes, show up, and hide in your camp the entire time. I've seen people do exactly that.

The ticket and the costumes just give you the opportunity. From there it's up to you to step up and create your own transformational experience and explore new ways of being yourself.

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