While visiting friends yesterday, their 15-year-old daughter approached me with great excitement. She showed off her new Converse shoes – the Chuck Taylor All Star classic.
Why did she push her parents into paying a small ransom for shoes which looked no different from the ordinary, and cheap, canvas hiking shoes I wore when I went camping with my geologist dad some 35 years ago?
Her response was utter amazement. Duh?!! Because everyone who was someone was wearing one. And she was the first among her friends to own a pair. Now all her friends wanted one too.
I stopped and thought about the work I do as a marketing strategist.
It is my job to advocate ways by which my clients and their brands can appeal to consumers… so consumers can buy their brands and my clients can grow rich. And, in the process, several advertising – and other marketing-communication – agencies and media companies can grow rich.
Sometimes, it’s at the cost of my friends paying through their noses to keep their children happy.
16 March 2008
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