Welcome to the Age of Inconvenience Marketing

“F- you, Zappos”, I mumbled to myself as I began to quickly remove my shoes and belt, and my laptop from my carry-on bag. After spending nearly 30 minutes in the understaffed airport security line, I was scrambling to make it to my departure gate on time. I grabbed some gray plastic bins to place my belongings into, and plastered across the bottom were ads for Zappos that mocked my situation. One read, “Place shoes here. Buy shoes here.”, and another said, “Getting shoes through security isn’t always fast. Buying them is.”

My issue wasn’t that Zappos advertises. It was how and where — that they both acknowledged and mocked my situation. And on the flip side, someone (TSA? The airport?) was profiting from my inconvenience. As a marketer with a cynical side, it started to make me wonder — does the TSA purposely move people slower through the security line to increase “bin engagement time”? Do they require us to take out our laptops and place them in their own dedicated bin so they can increase their “bin impressions” per traveler?

And where does this end? Think of all of the other inconvenient moments in our lives we have no control over, and which marketers (and brands) can take advantage of…. highway construction zones? DUI checkpoints? Emergency rooms?

Welcome to the age of Inconvenience Marketing™.