SENSELESS SHOPPING?

   In honor of Valentine’s Day 2013, Americans will spend $815 million on gifts and treats... for their pets.  Crazy?

   Not really.  We often buy out of “need” but there are many forms of need.  You need food to live; you buy food.  You feel tired but not thirsty so you grab some Starbucks.  “My friends and I NEED some retail therapy!” 

   Stores help shoppers both explore and satisfy their various needs.  Online shopping’s growth notwithstanding, most shopping remains a richly sensual experience.  We employ our sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch as we troll aisles and try products.  And we often do it automatically, sometimes without being fully aware that we’re doing it.

   So here’s a challenge for you.  Next time you’re in a store, shop with your hands in your pockets.  Touch nothing until you’ve decided to buy it.  Do not feel those sheets you’re considering or the blouse you covet or heft the cantaloupe.  Do not squeeze the Charmin.

   Then do something similar by writing down what you smell as you shop.  Is that fresh bread in the bakery?  “Boy, that roasted chicken smells good?” What do good leather gloves or ripe bananas smell like?  The perfume bar at Macy’s isn’t the only place that you’re being led around by your nose.

   Or ears.  What do you hear while shopping?  To hear it, you almost have to stop, sit and listen.  In-store radio?  Muted conversations?  The rustle of packages or the squeak of wheels and the harsh tones bouncing off linoleum?

   For this Valentine’s Day weekend, recognize shopping for the sensual experience that it is.  And indulge.

OWN OR RENT?

   “Who owns those shelves?”  Seth Godin writes one of the most widely-read and influential marketing blogs in the world.  He recently hit close to home with a post on owning vs renting.  

   Retailers and brand marketers alike tussle over who owns a customer.  If you go to Lowes to buy a Therma-Tru door, are you a Lowes customer or are you a Therma-Tru customer?  I suggest that the answer is that you are both – and neither.

   You could buy another brand of door at Lowes or you could go to Home Depot or Menards to buy a Therma-Tru door.  If neither the consumer goods company nor the retailer serves you well, you will be captured by neither.  You can “fire” them at any time.

   Doing a great job at the point of purchase – the only place where the customer, product and desire to buy intersect – is critical to both retailer and CPG.  But it’s also crucial to the shopper looking to fulfill a need, like a new front door for their home.

   Marketers may own their brands and retailers may own the shelves off of which you buy goods but the shopper owns both CPG and retailer – lock, stock and barrel.  YOU own the shelves.

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

   As we flip our calendars and move into a new year, take a moment to consider what kind of year you want.  For me, Happy isn’t the best adjective for what I seek.  How about you?  Let me suggest some others.

   Heady: Make 2013 potent, even intoxicating.

   Hearty: Let your year overflow with meaty challenges that, as you overcome them, each makes you better.

   Helpful:  May you find ways to help but also allow yourself to be helped.

   Historic: Let the year ahead prove noteworthy and memorable.  “Remember 2013?  Now, THAT was a year!”

   Healthy: May your health and that of your loved ones be hale.

   Heartfelt: Be earnest, even passionate, in whatever you undertake. 

   Humorous: Laugh at yourself and your circumstances – not others – and encourage others to do the same.  Life’s too short to take it all too seriously.

   Handmade: Craft and mold the year into what you want.  Get your fingerprints all over it. 

   Hospitable: Pick your friends – but not to pieces.  Even when you vie with rivals, compete without being a jerk.

   Hardworking: May you do work worth doing and do it with gusto.

   However you choose to describe the new year, make it your own.  Just as no two people are alike, so too are no two years alike.  Best wishes for your own, personal, one-of-a-kind New Year.