Woody Allen once summed up people’s eternal desire to buy products to solve life’s problems.
“My father was fired. He was technologically unemployed. My father had worked for the same firm for twelve years. They fired him and replaced him with a tiny gadget that does everything my father does, only it does it much better. The depressing thing is, my mother ran out and bought one.”
The desire for products is so entrenched in our history that artifacts of advertising messages date back to 4000 B.C.! Well before the printing press, the ancient Egyptians used papyrus to produce sales messages. Even when the vast majority of people were illiterate and lived in poverty, producers used “billboards” with images to advertise their product offerings. Today, mankind’s propensity to be pitched-to is arguably best exemplified by the staggering (and growing) infomercial industry, which enjoys an estimated $91 billion a year in sales.
Most people naturally follow the path of least resistance and have to work hard to quell that tendency. As human beings, if we could buy something at Walmart that would settle a family dispute, teach our children to do their homework and keep us following the diet that worked so well last year, we probably would. Unfortunately, when it comes to these types of issues, we live in a world where the path of least resistance yields, at best, mediocre results, and the latest technology cannot resolve life’s most complex challenges. Issues pertaining to relationships, health and, yes, personal investing, require a process, not a product, because they need constant and consistent attention over a long period of time. As John F. Kennedy once brilliantly remarked, ``Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.``
Our tendency towards easy solutions is only exacerbated by the presence of marketing professionals determined to capitalize on our weaknesses. Given the tremendous resources spent on advertising (and the commensurate profits for people who work in the industry), companies certainly do not hesitate to bombard us with the idea that their product can solve our life’s nagging issues. This type of advertising is perhaps no more problematic anywhere than in the wealth management industry, where clients are often sold products which are supposed to achieve their financial goals with no work required.
In and of itself, humanity’s inclination towards buying products is not necessarily a problem. There are many products that address specific needs and have improved our ability to live the lives we want to live. The personal computer, for example, increased our working efficiency and ability to communicate across long distances for little cost. Kitchen appliances, clothing, furniture, food – these are all products that we value and are well served to buy in addressing certain needs.
The problems with product-orientation arise when we try to use products as the silver bullet for solving life’s long-term and complicated problems – be they in parenting, healthy living, romantic relationships or financial success. These issues are specific to our personal situations and cannot be solved with products designed for public consumption. To grapple with such things, people need a process-based approach rather than a product-based one. We believe that one’s wealth and the care given to it are no different.