Is It Bad Enough?

There are days when "Is it bad enough?" appears to be a wise question in evaluating the sales potential of a product or service. Those days are inspired by news stories about talent-less celebrities and popular products of dubious quality. Sometimes the world beats a path to the door of the worst supplier.

Merit-conscious critics of those examples are shocked that legions of people will embrace and tout mediocrity but they miss an important point: everyone knows that what is usually thought of as high quality is not being sold. In many cases the sellers are peddling low price and the consumer isn't in search of excellence but instead wants "good enough." We've all seen (and purchased) bargain basement products that will fit a particular need and a small budget. 

What interests - and worries - me is where high prices are paid for grossly inferior products or services. Let's set aside the issue of marketing mavens and concede that some celebrities, companies, and politicians have mastered the art of selling bad as good. They won't admit that, of course, but they're using a reverse standard where marginal quality is gussied up with labels such as authentic, innovative, and daring.

This approach permits customers to pose as cutting-edge, uninhibited, bohemian thinkers who are superior to the drab, anal-retentive, dweebs who worry about Old School things like experience, competence, and performance. This reverse-status appeal (a modest form of nostalgie de la boue) conveys a new status, hence the success of furniture that is deliberately "distressed" and designer jeans that are torn. You can spend heavily to look uninhibited.

David Brooks nailed this change years ago in "Bobos In  Paradise" so this is hardly news. There is, however, a twist that I've noticed.

It has long been said that people buy on emotion and then justify their decision with logic. The old marketing saw is to "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." I wonder if we have reached the point where people don't even feel the need to construct a logical rationale and where the attitude is "buy on emotion and justify on emotion because emotion is all you need." Reason and standards are irrelevant. Go with your heart and forget about your head. Feelings trump logic.

If that is correct, we have crossed into dangerous territory.