Coffee vs. Bombs
Yesterday, just for a change, I went on the Independent Newspaper website to find a different source for my daily news update. Now I don’t know if any of you readers went on it yesterday but I thought I’d share with you what was so apparent from their home page – it’s all about consumerism. Everywhere I looked…
Right next to the core news story of the bomb that people narrowly escaped, was a headline on the results of a poll taken to decide which celebrity had the best body, hair and of course the worst…
I then flicked onto the next news story about political matter and once again, situated right beside this one was the headline entitled ’50 Best Coffee Shops.’
And so the page went on: Hardcore news vs. consumer polls.
They even have a results column so you can view the ‘most clicked on’ stories and interestingly enough out of the top ten, the first winning six were all of the consumer poll stories; A coffee story is more popular than a newsworthy bomb story…
It’s very simple how this happens and it’s the same reason that I, myself drew the mouse over the page and clicked on the coffee story. Because I can relate to it; I like to pop into a coffee shop when I’m in town so I was drawn to the story wondering which came first, and more importantly had I been there and did I agree?
I clicked on the coffee article first, not because I don’t care about the other news stories, but in some little way it could benefit my own life. Maybe I’d make a better choice in the future about which coffee house to have my twenty minutes of caffeine fueled peace in before the kick sets in and I’m ready to keep on charging…
Readers are looking for affirmation that they are making the right decisions in life, even from small choices such as seeing who got voted to have the best hair (Jennifer Aniston) and then running out and buying whichever brand she happens to use feeling that if their hair is better, they will be better. Now there’s a whole wealth of discussion on that topic which maybe I’ll go into another time.
For now I’d just like to say that that’s all consumerism is – appealing to a new consumer about a product that may and hopefully will benefit their lives in some way. If you’re in business or are a sole trader you will have spent hours convincing yourself of the reasons that people should choose you when they need your product or services.
From this page it’s clear that there is so much choice on the market these days that people need help choosing. So get your brand out there into the consumer eyes and help them make the right choice!
I’m off to check the headlines today – perhaps I’ll see you in one of the top fifty coffee shops later…
