Santa sucks
Screw Santa and gift-giving sucks.
That's kinda the vibe some people get from Joel Waldfogel’s paper on holiday gift-giving titled The Deadweight Loss of Christmas.
The paper is lengthy, and it's the answer to the question, “Are economists really that gloomy?”
(The answer is yes, btw.)
The gist of the paper is:
Gift-giving is kinda an economic waste... ‘cause it revolves around making choices for other people.
Maybe that sounds crazy to you. A waste?
But...
I think Waldfogel's onto something that business owners often ignore when they sell to customers.
Let's say an environmentalist got you a gift.
They spent two grand on a banana duct-taped to a white background. Or, as pretentious art snobs call it, “An art piece showing how humans are choking the planet.”
Waldfogel believes there's usually a mismatch between what the recipient prefers and the gift they get. That's why most recipients would have bought something else had they spent the cash themselves.
In other words…
You may pretend to like the gift, but if given the chance… and you're not insane...
You won’t spend two grand on a̶ d̶u̶c̶t̶-̶t̶a̶p̶e̶d̶ b̶a̶n̶a̶n̶a̶ an art piece that any preschooler could have made.
This mismatch is what makes gift-giving an economic waste.
Now hang on, Scrooge, gift-giving isn't entirely a waste.
At least, not if you give someone something they want.
And Waldfogel believes you do this by finding out what they prefer, not what you think they prefer.
Now, I disagree with Waldfogel's purely transactional view of gift-giving…
But that bit about finding out what people want is the core idea of Harry Brown's The Secret of Selling Anything.
“It isn’t what you want that determines what other individuals will buy from you—it’s what they want. And that answer can only come from them, not from you…”
Maybe you've heard that before.
But the idea goes even further.
You can't motivate someone to buy something they don't already want to buy.
Sure, they'll pretend they like your suck-ass gift…
...but when it involves parting with their cash, they'll only buy what they want.
So…
You're better off finding what motivates them. And showing them how they can get what they want through your product.
And you do this through thorough research.
When you know your audience inside out… not only will you understand what truly motivates them, but you'll also know which product benefit appeals to them the most.
So instead of selling art snobs on the simplicity of a duct-taped banana…
Since they're pretentious, you're better off selling them on some lame hidden means of the art… and watching them fawn over it.
Bunch of suckers!
