Those "stupid ideas" may not be so stupid
shadyacres.tumblr.com
shadyacres.tumblr.com
For example, I'd suspect that the majority reading this cannot change the brakes on their car? Perhaps a similar proportion of mechanics can code C++.
Looking at the example in the post - people buying a limited edition $400 Starbucks card for $450: Starbucks is far more than a coffee vendor to those who shop there regularly. When you spend money on things, you become overly attached to those things. As Starbucks overtly sells consumables, there is some dissonance to attachment without a physical manifestation. So with the limited edition gift card, I am able to focus my attachment on a physical object.
The additional genius of this move was to make the card $450. They could have also made a $25 card with $20 credit but the high price of both the card and the premium meant that people felt that it was a better representation of their attachment to Starbucks.
I bet that if they got rid of the gift card aspect of it and just charged $50 for swag, many fewer people would call it stupid. I think it comes down to an inability to distinguish multiple functions. People see that it's a gift card, and that people are overpaying for that function, and so they conclude "stupid". But there's more to it that they either don't see or aren't paying attention to.
When pointed out, many people will double down and say that spending $50 for Starbucks swag is "stupid". These same people probably spend similar amounts of money on swag for things they like, so at this point they can be safely ignored. People's opinions have inertia that's hard to modify with something as trivial as facts.
I don't exactly know what message people are trying to send. Many of them may be trying to impress cute baristas by being a big spender.
These same people probably spend similar amounts of money on swag for things they like
And do you really own no posters or branded decorations of any kind? I mean, that's conceivable, but definitely not usual.
While I have a few branded shirts, those were given to me, and I don't have any posters, nothing bought for the swag value that I can think of. I wear plain shirts whenever possible. People call me "boring".
You hit the nail on the head. They describe themselves as a 'third place'. The first two are work and home. Starbucks is a third place right after that where people meet, work, relax, spent time. It is not a simple coffee shop. For every person who ridicules it for all the stores being the same and selling the same burnt coffee there are 100s who love going to Starbucks and enjoying a more or less of a consistent experience.
After a while it is also a place where memories are made for those people. Like people attached to the homes they live in and they remember "ah here I burnt my first steak after we were married" a lot of people will probably have similar memories of Starbucks "here we came on our first date", "here I met my biggest client for coffee and it turned my business around".
It was interesting that even in the economic downturn their stock didn't suffer too much. People still want to get out and go to this "third place" even in bad times (I am saying this because I sure thought they would lose quite a bit of business, as what kind of people would keep paying $4 for coffee when jobless rate is at 15% for example, I was wrong).
http://www.formalifesciencemarketing.com/newsletters/scienti...
It's a wonder how this society allows itself to be manipulated in the name of others' profit.
It's just a coffee shop.
...
No, it isn't, which is the whole point.
Maybe I'm biased because for the last few years I've been living in one of the few starbucks-free cities left, but the times I've been in in other places... it's just a coffee shop.
The crap about memories I said is because yeah I met people there and (perhaps sadly) some parts of my life are tied to it.
FWIW this morning I was in the foulest mood I've been in for several years, I probably shouldn't have been commenting on anything.
It could be claimed that the "effect" that they get from the purchase or the cachet that comes from owning this Veblen good outweighs the $50 in marginal cost. I would argue however that it remains irrational, but well within the range of irrational behaviors that humans exhibit more or less constantly.
Buying a used car with no warranty is lunacy to others.
Stupid is relative.
A lot of people find many things stupid until they're exposed to it enough. "Wii" was a stupid name. Microsoft releasing a console was stupid. The iPod was stupid. The idea of powered flight was crazy. Life, industry, and entrepreneurship feeds on stupid and makes it smart.
Those who are most successful in new business are those who show the most sensitive insight into the psychological make-up of the prospective client.
(Emphasis mine.)
Absolutely. The best entrepreneurs are the ones who can find opportunity in the most unexpected places.
I couldn't wait to switch to GMail because I knew I'd still be using it today. As an example, I forgot what email spam was and everytime I hear about email spam I kept wondering: "People are still using mail clients connected to mail servers that do forward spam en masse?".
And, surely enough, I'm here still using my GMail.
Asked a buddy at Google to send me an invite.
I don't remember that it was particularly buggy although I was one of the early adopter.
I do remember it totally rocked compared to Yahoo! that said.
Why so much Google hate? ("Give us your email so you be the first to test buggy beta software")
That's honestly not the GMail I remember: I remember it totally rocked since the beginning.
It's not a bad deal for someone who goes there every day.
If you extrapolate your beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes and expect them to apply to the rest of the population, you are making a mistake, and missing opportunities.
I’ve been thinking about entrepreneurship a lot lately,
and this really drove home the point that I have no clue
what people want.