Experience Inc.

We are living in what many marketers call an experience economy.

The articles do the rounds every few months as the latest and greatest in consumer insights. The headlines read nearly the same and focus almost exclusively on millennials, who seem to be shaping such an economy.

And what do millennials want?

Experiences over things.

Perceived Value

A wise man once said that human nature doesn’t change. In fact, this was said by several wise men, all of whom probably belonged to the epistemological school of thought. Marketing isn’t exempt from this. It seems that every new developing technology only draws attention to how easily we humans are swindled by framing and design.

Consider Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a food promoter born in 1737 back before even Hotmail was at its peak. Parmentier was an army pharmacist captured in Prussia during the Seven Years’ War, and while in prison was forced to eat potatoes that the French saw as ‘hog feed’.