Right?!
You’ve seen all the great case studies about how Uber means nobody will own cars in the future.
And how everyone’s now renting their place instead of buying because it’s better to free up cash.
Well, do you have cash lying around then, or new burgeoning investments? Thought so.
Every week there’s a new ‘Uber of boats’, ‘Uber of highrises’, fractional this or the other…
Look, I used Uber almost daily for a year.
It’s convenient, and I’m glad it’s there. In some places it’s the best way to get around.
But I wouldn’t depend on a rented commodity I can’t control. Nooo way!
Because the thing is…. Human nature still is to want to own things.
And the reason why… is NOT just to block access to others and to control… far from it.
Still think it’s somehow wrong to own? Let’s take a closer look at this.
The soviets collapsed because nobody owned anything really… so nobody cared either, really.
Back in the USSR, when the big clock on the wall hit 4 pm, the jobs unfinished… stayed unfinished.
But when you actually own something, you’ll feel a strange urge to:
- Take excellent care for the thing you own, to the very best of your ability
- Preserve its original value for as long as you can
- Increase its value to you as well as for whoever might own it next
- Make it look even better than its value to the onlookers
…Right?! On the other hand…
- If you were to just rent something, you care only marginally, don’t you.
- You don’t carefully wax a rental car.
- You don’t clean out every single crevice of a rental holiday home. Much less a hotel room.
Suddenly though, you do all that when you actually own it. Go figure!
And this gets a little murky, but you don’t care for your partner quite as much if you’re not in a committed relationship.
Not in the same way. That’s why the institution of marriage is still there, despite all the misgivings and climbing divorce rates.
So what does all this mean for us marketing folk?
It means you should go against the grain and test selling something tangible people can actually own and call their own.
- It can be a big ticket product, binders and all.
- Or it could be a memory stick full of stuff valuable to your audience.
- Anything people can hold in their hand, and put on a shelf as if on a pedestal.
Most people still really appreciate the warm and fuzzy feeling of ownership, so use that to your advantage and sell something that provides them that feeling.
Because when you do that, your customers will associate their experience with you, and suddenly you have a customer for life.
How about that!
Something worth striving for.
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