A routine shopping trip can be overwhelming these days, with the onslaught of products clamoring for our attention. In my last e-newsletter I shared a Robert Frost parody, “Stopping to Buy Goods on a Snowy Evening” and reprise it here. Though written several years (and many thousands of SKUs ago), it still resonates.
Stopping to Buy Goods on a Snowy Evening
by Tracy Carlson (with apologies to Robert Frost)
Whose goods these are I do not care.
The shelves are brimming, set with flair.
I’d rather not be shopping here,
But stomach’s empty, cupboard’s bare.
The marketers must think it queer
To shop without a preference clear
For brands they labor to invent
From bargain buy to niche premier.
With all the marketers have spent
They wonder why I’m not content.
Their labels beckon, logos leap:
I grab and go, indifferent.
The goods are lovely, prices cheap,
But endless choices make me weep.
With aisles to go before I sleep–
With miles of aisles before I sleep.
© 2001 Tracy Carlson. All rights reserved.
Several years ago, when I had the good fortune to meet with the Commentary editor at NPR’s Marketplace at the time, Elizabeth Tucker, she liked my Frost parody and walked me down to the fabled Frank Stanton Studios to record it on the spot. (It never aired, but it was still a thrill.)
The relentlessness of shelves at retail strikes an instant chord. Yet we marketers crank out the SKUs, piling on features and flavors, sizes and varieties. As if we were adding genuine value, while we hide behind the assertion that more of this is exactly what consumers want.
What about fewer options and more tranquility? How much of shoppers’ defection to Costco is about simplicity of product selection? Or to Trader Joe’s because their array of products is both limited and genuinely interesting?
Brand people want “new products” on their resumes. Senior managers live and die by sales at the margin. Retailers profit from slotting fees. Who will have the courage to stop? Before you plan your next product, consider:
• Whom will this delight?
• How will it enhance people’s experience of shopping your category?
• How could equivalent (or fewer) resources be used more creatively to enliven your current lineup? (Don’t forget to count all those person-days/years spent on the new thing!)
I welcome your thoughts on product proliferation, how it affects you, and/or what you think marketers should be doing differently, so please leave a comment below. And if you like parodies, songs and doggerel, these generally debut in the e-newsletter, so please sign up!
