If you had $100 to spend on your happiness, what would you buy?
Two main categories that purchases fall into are experiential, and material. We know that more people would rather have an experience than a “thing”. It happens in service businesses all the time.
Why go buy a thing that would lead us to a feeling, when we could get right to the feeling?
In St. Louis I planned on spending the last of my cash on dinner, but near the Arch, there was a helicopter tour. It cost nearly all my cash, but I had never been in a helicopter. (Cue Jeff standing still in shock and ambivalence).
Regardless of what I chose to buy- it was going to take the rest of my money to do it. This now became a binary decision.
“A” Eat at the originally planned pricey restaurant or…
“B” Do something I’ve never done (and may not get to do again for a long while) and grab a hotdog after.
I rode in a helicopter. I regret nothing.
The thought that most material purchases ultimately lead to an experience of some sort, is worthy of investigating. We don’t really want the thing so much as we want what the thing promises.
PWe don’t buy a gym membership, we buy the fit person on the wall that will be us… after we buy a membership. We don’t buy a convertible for utility, we buy how we think we will feel riding with the top down in the sun.
We buy products and experiences but the feelings that come from them are what we are truly after.
We could become that fit person for a few dollars a day and have more fun doing it. We could ride in a friend’s jeep for free (and have the friend with us too).
Some feelings are hard to charge for unless there is a product to attach the price to.
