A Real Find: Blu Dot Experiment

Read this very interesting Rob Walker article from his Consumed column from the NY Times or watch the video on the Blu Dot experiment found in the second link.
A Real Find
Blu Dot Film

This was of course a subtle yet unsubtle way of promoting a brand and yet it truly is something that each of us will find happening to ourselves. Perhaps not the most comfortable looking chair, but it is aesthetically pleasing and quite expensive at $129.  It is no surprise that most of the people attracted to the chair and that also took the chair were some type of design or industrial genre of people.  I found it neat that they could track the chairs locations using GPS and Google Maps.  The follow up and feedback with each consumer that took the chair was what was really interesting.  Consumer behavior and marketing are heavily bonded to psychology and how we make decisions each day, how we form our own type of brand and how brands form us.  Blu Dot explored these behaviors on camera and in person.  It is also interesting to see how people react to randomly placed chairs on the street corner.  It is typical to find usable trash on the sidewalk in NYC, but notice that almost all of the chairs were not placed near trash.  This changes the situation for the consumer.  If the chair were by trash, the consumer can now take the chair at a quicker rate because they won't feel guilty from taking it since it is in the company of garbage.  However, when the chair is left alone, consumers study the situation in more depth and think deeper about whether or not they should take it.  It becomes almost awkward for them.

Blu Dot who received this marketing idea from Mono (a marketing agency), saw it as a performance on the street and so they called it a type of "street theater."  It is entertainment and to the average consumer, it is not seen as that annoying in your face, bombastic marketing that we all loathe.  Marketing products in these types of fashions is going to become more and more pervasive in everyday life.  You won't even realize you are part of the street theater operations. But, perhaps the most humorous part of this articles is toward the end when Walker compares marketing to Congress.  We don't like Congress in general terms, but we continue to re-elect the same representatives.  This is akin to marketing: we don't like the daily intrusions of marketing, unless we are "totally into the chair (or whatever) being marketed."  As for your own experiences as a consumer, I recommend reading articles like these, especially Rob Walker's column.  He gives a different angle on how we think as consumers and forces you to look at things in a different light. Happy reading!