Courtesy of Garron Nicholls
What is indulgence?
It is the ability to act according to one’s whim and fancy, whenever and wherever one feels like it. It is the availability of multiple choices which offer varied sensorial experiences, steeped in delicious decadence. It is about being able to savour the moment, untouched by the ravages of life.
Context helps one understand where and how consumers purchase (Russian Market in Phnom Penh, courtesy of Larpoon)
We have all been caught in the wave one way or other. The rush towards speed and efficiency in business – partially abetted by the global craze over social media – has led many to forget about the foundational strategies of marketing. There is such an emphasis on tactics (10 ways to be richer, 7 tips to make your wife happy, 15 of the most important ideas in social media marketing…) that people forget about that all important factor.
Namely, context.
After a monumental hike across the width of Wilsons Prom spanning almost 20 km and 6 hours of hard walking, we decided to up the ante – literally and figuratively – by climbing up the 558 metre tall Mount Oberon to catch the sunset. Fortunately, the trek up and down the mountain (or hill?) is broad and well-paved as it caters to vehicular traffic. As we were keen to catch the sunset that day, we wasted almost no time in tackling the relatively shorter 3.4 km route after a short rest at the Oberon Car Park.
Our vertical ascend began at the foot of Mount Oberon, with a sign showing the only path up and down.
On the second morning of our trip to Wilsons Promontory, we made two pretty long hikes covering a total combined distance of almost 27 km in a day. The first, which I would label as a “Journey to the East” as it brought us from the Western side of Wilsons Prom to the East, was monumental in many ways. It not only brought us through winding passages covering a multitude of forested and rocky terrains, but showed us the awesome beauty of God’s green Earth, enhanced by the endorphins elicited through endurance exercise! While this post will try to capture the essence of our extended walk, nothing beats experiencing the real thing.
Put on your hiking boots, fill up your water bottles, and go!
The first part of our journey was a fairly easy saunter through open bushlands like this.
On our last week of the mid-semester break, a couple of my friends from Graduate House and I decided to go for a short break to Wilsons Promontory located at the southern most tip of the Australian continent. Famed for its luscious combination of awe-inspiring mountains, luxuriant forests and breathtaking beaches, Wilsons Prom is located in the Gippsland region of Victoria, about 157 km Southeast of Melbourne city. Populated by indigenous wildlife like kangaroos, wallabies, emus, echidnas, wombats, numerous birds as well as venomous snakes, the park is a peaceful sanctuary for all manners of beasts – including the two-legged variety.
My telling of this tale will be spread over a few posts, beginning with our preparations here in Melbourne City.
This is the faithful Hyundai car which took us across hundreds of kilometres. It actually drives better than it looks.
On our last day on Kangaroo Island, we made a trip to the Island Pure Sheep Dairy located at Gum Creek Road which is off Cygnet River. It was one of the farms which we haven’t explored yet during our three days visit and we thought it would be good to see how a sheep farm compares to a goat farm (which we often visited in Singapore). We also spent some time in the Northcote area having our lunch and strolling around, before departing from the island later on and from Adelaide the day after.
From a distance, the sheep farm and diary looked a little blurry. Was it the whole dreamlike quality of the vacation or a special setting on my camera? Unfortunately no. What happened was that I accidentally put too much water into the camera lens while trying to clean it!
Customers should feel as relaxed as spending a day at the beach
While browsing various blogs, websites and news feeds today, I was suddenly hit by a thought. What if we make it more enjoyable for our customers to transact and purchase from us? In other words, improve the quality of their time spent with us.
As many would have heard, time is often more precious than money. You can’t buy a day, an hour or even the second that has slipped by. As the saying goes “Carpe Diem!” or “Seize the Day!” goes, one doesn’t want to waste precious discretionary time doing something utterly boring, meaningless or frustrating. The best way to avoid the ravages of time – at least to your consumer – is to offer an experience that is so compelling and “magical” that they no longer remember that they are spending their precious days of leave spending hard earned cash on you.
After waiting for the (non-volcanic) dust to settle from my assignments, readings and thesis writing, I took some time off today to visit the exhibition “A Day in Pompeii” that is now showing at the Melbourne Museum till the end of October. I have a personal interest to view this blockbuster exhibition as I have visited the site some 15 years ago in 1994 when I toured Europe as an undergraduate. If you wish, you can actually experience Pompeii online with this wonderful virtual walk through that allows you to see what is available in each gallery. Of course, nothing beats the real thing!
Nestled in what is now close to modern day Naples in Italy, the ancient city of Pompeii lived under the ominous shadow of the volcanic Mount Vesuvius. Citizens and residents of that town-city were used to the occasional rumblings of the dormant volcano, and took it quite matter of factly. It became a part and parcel of life, according to famed Roman lawyer and magistrate Pliny the Younger. Nobody could have suspected that a disaster of cataclysmic proportions was about to occur.
Courtesy of Hella Bus
Have you wondered why a perceived treat or reward sometimes appear better than they really are? Or experienced the endless wait for a brand new gadget to arrive in the stores, rushing to be the first among your friends to get it? How about the thought of that luscious holiday in Europe, where you can soak in the sights, scents and sounds of culture?
The one thing holding these disparate consumption experiences together is anticipation. An oft-forgotten but oh so powerful emotion which grips everyone of us.
Dinosaurs are a surefire hit, but should all museums have them? (taken at Melbourne Museum)
Should museums and galleries always attract the largest and widest crowd possible, attracting/attacking every customer segment? Can they be scholastically superior, operationally efficient, highly entertaining, marketing savvy, and customer oriented at the same time? Are major blockbuster exhibitions the only way to draw a big crowd?
Some of these issues were tackled in this excellent post by Nina Simon (of Museums 2.0 blog) in an interview she conducted with John Falk and Beverly Sheppard, authors of the book “Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New Business Models for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions”. Admittedly, I haven’t read the book yet but I am definitely going to check it out.