Turning Products Into Experiences Makes People Happier
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Remember the old Heinz commercial with the tagline “Anticipation, it’s making me wait?” A teenage boy arrives to pick up his date, and while his date finishes getting ready, her parents offer him a hamburger and fries. The ketchup takes forever to pour — but, in the end, it’s so good it’s worth the wait. Then, in a bit of street justice, he makes his date sit there while he finishes his burger.
Turns out that commercial worked on a couple of levels. On one, it became an iconic piece of television that sold a lot of Heinz ketchup. On another, it was an early example of turning a product into an experience as a way to increase happiness. While happiness isn’t the end goal — sales are — there’s clearly a correlation between product satisfaction and repeat purchase.
Research pretty consistently shows that people get more happiness from experiences than from things. The idea that something that’s fleeting carries more intrinsic value than something that’s at least semi-permanent may seem counterintuitive, but when faced with the choice between a new iPhone and a weekend getaway, the answer is clear: Choose both! No, wait, that wasn’t one of the options — choose the weekend getaway.
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