Branding Michelle

It came to my attention not too long ago that Marketing guru Seth Godin has a blog. I would like to comment on his November post "The inanity of the American Consumer". You can see it here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/11/index.html.

Seth takes the time to talk about the balderdash that Target is selling for the Holidays. It is a multi function toaster that also poaches an egg while you wait for the bread to pop. Seth sees this sort of product as "useless". He states,
"It seems as though we've marketed ourselves into a corner, where the only way to grow is to find increasingly narrow niches of decreasing utility. The consumer portion of our economy is now dependent on a four-week long debt-fueled race to buy the useless."

Even though I am aware of Seths supposed "genius" I can't help but wonder if he is really thinking about todays consumers. The one thing that people cannot buy or sell is time. Time is the most valuable thing that we can never fully obtain, but only manipulate. When a product is made that consolidates activities and "gives" extra time, it has value and it has use.

There is a certain niche for this product, however, that is not a negative thing. Niche advertising and products are clearly on the rise. Taking into account that mass advertising is starting to loose it's appeal, advertisers realize that there are alternatives and new frontiers to explore. On the large scale of things these niche products are generally the same as any other product, with a few tweeks here and there to fit a tighter demographic.

Example: a toaster with a little cup added on the side to cook an egg.
Average Toaster=mass product.
Toaster with egg cooker=niche product.
So what's the big deal?

Tweeking products is what we do now to give more and more people exactly what they want. We have come a long way from the one kind of bar soap and the single type of hair pomade. These kinds of niche products are finding their way into individuals homes who actually can use them. Perhaps you have time to kill Seth, but I certainly know a few people who could really use the extra help.