Nothing Chic Ever Changed the World
On products and feelings
Hi Readers, I wanted to start this letter by apologizing for the recent radio silence on CONTENT. I’ve been busy spawning the next generation of Content Heads (ie. having a baby). But there’s a lot saved in Drafts, including this piece I started writing around Christmas. More soon!
What does it say about about our society that the two smartest long-term investments of this century are:
1) Monster Energy stock (up 100,000% since 2001)
2) Hermés Bags (more stable than gold within the same period)
I have some ideas…
It’s easy to think of consumer products in terms of what people want. But it’s often more important to think about them in terms of how people feel. A want sends you in one direction (I need that thing, let me get it, okay I got it.) Whereas a feeling has the ability to switch trajectories (I was feeling rustic, but now I’m feeling fancy.) Without getting too touchy-feely about it, feelings are what people actually buy into, not physical things. This is why luxury advertisements are rarely just a picture of a product, and when they are, the message is usually about either craft or design, not “Hey, do you want this thing? Buy it.”