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The Maslow Thing
This idea of our movement from hard goods to experiences is beyond important. Think about it. Your car lasts 5x as long as twenty years ago. The recession has us asking hard questions about the circular nature of consumption. 

Most things we buy DEPRECIATE in value. 

Will Dean, the CEO of the suddenly $100M Tough Mudder "experiences" company can teach every marketing team an important idea. Your product or service isn't about features and benefits anymore, or not so simply and only about features and benefits. 

Your product or service, no matter how boring and removed you think it is, turns on the experience it creates the memories. Dean notes how experiences create memories and memories APPRECIATE in value. 

Maslow believed in a "hierarchy of needs". Once base needs were more than satisfied we would work up to the ladder to focus on self-actualization. 

Maslow's Time is NOW.

When people pay $100 to race in mud under barbed wire we've arrived at the moment in time when base needs have receded far enough (for most) that our lives are about THE BIG QUESTIONS. Big Questions such as hope, faith and love produce a wandering spirit looking for a muddy hole, a bunch of barbed wire and a tribe to share it all with. 

The implications of The Experience Economy (need to take Pine's and Gilmore's book off the shelf again) are vast. How does your company, brand, products or services create memories, chronicle memories, share memories? Knowing the answer to these questions will determine what kind of future your enterprise will create, what kind of memories it will shape, form and share. 

Wrote about the big questions issue last week for New Media Leaders:
http://newmedialeaders.com/ideas/why-big-marketing-ideas-rule-343/  

A beautiful look at the value of creating memories.  Most costs and some investments deprectiate with time.  Investing in memories will "appreciate" in value and build bonds between people who you care about.  It ends with some nice questions to ask for how this applies to customers and/or employers.