RonBoyd
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Looking at Life as One Big Subscription
In any event, Marketers understand all too well how the process works:
Its not all bad, however:Most of us mentally account for nearly all the money we spend, whether or not we realize it. We assign a book value to a purchase, Professor Okada says, based on what we pay. Usually we won’t replace that product until we think we’ve gotten our money’s worth. That explains why some people continue to wear ill-fitting shoes rather than chucking them.
A subscription moves consumers over the hurdle of mentally depreciating an existing asset. When you go on vacation and don’t get any movies from Netflix, it is easier to accept having wasted $30 for your subscription that month than it would be to have bought a $30 DVD and never watched it.
Some of the madness of the recent housing bubble can be blamed on an extension of the subscription mentality. ... They were treating an investment in real estate as though it were just another consumable product, to be disposed of with the same emotion one shows in recycling a monthly magazine.
Frugality is a virtue, as we remind ourselves during this recession. But it’s not ridiculous to spend on upgrades. ... a consumer can become more efficient by upgrading to a more fuel-efficient car or by buying a computer that crashes less often or boots more quickly. A new smartphone gives a person access to information everywhere, a liberating experience for anyone searching for a restaurant or a theater where no computer, bookstore or newsstand is nearby.
In any event, Marketers understand all too well how the process works:
“It’s hard to initiate subscriptions,” Professor Fader says. “But once you get them over that hurdle, great things happen.”