Wired 13.02: Revenge of the Right Brain
Had an eerily similar conversation with a buddy today at lunch before I saw this article in the evening. His key insight : although we live in the world of abundance, marketers are still trying to sell as if we live in the world of scarcity. Constatntly falling prices and costs have pretty well ensured that most things are within the reach of most people. However, the scarcity-driven marketing approach fails to resonate with this reality.
In the post-industrial society, marketing is going to have to connect with people at the level of personal happiness and fulfillment. And no, this can't be the illusory happiness of obsessive-compulsive hyperconsumption (L'Oreal's advertisment - "because you are worth it" is just disgusting and stupid, for example), or a momemtery escape from reality such as drive-a-Porshce-to-experience-freedom kinda' stuff. This applies to all other aspects of business as well.