Reductio Ad Absurdum

I read a passage about using the question "why" recursively in order to determine the reasons that a customer actually buys a product. In a way, it makes good sense, but like many things, it can be taken too far.

This notion arises from the current situation of marketing - or more aptly, the attempt of marketers to gauge the nature of the current situation. It's seen as an evolution from marketing based on product features, to marketing based on functional benefits, to marketing based on psychological benefits, to marketing based on emotion. The technique is interesting but ultimately disintegrates into absurdity.

• Why would I want to buy a hammer? Because it's good for driving nails.
• Why would I want to drive a nail? Because you need to hang a picture.
• Why would I want to hang a picture? Because you want to decorate your home.
• Why would I want to decorate my home? Because you want your houseguests to be impressed.
• Why would I want my houseguests to be impressed? Because they will think you are important.
• Why would I want people to think I am important? Because it makes you feel good about yourself.
• Why would I want to feel good about myself? Because you just do, that's all.

I can accept the first three steps. You could certainly sell me a hammer to drive a nail to hang a picture. You might also mention a handful of other reasons I might need to drive a nail, and I will be convinced that the hammer is a multipurpose tool that enables me to accomplish many different little goals, and well worth the price you're asking for one. But beyond that, the inferences are a bit stretched and it degrades into one of those Philosophy-101 syllogisms that use simple statements to arrive at a completely illogical conclusion.

My sense is that oblique advertising, the kind where you see a commercial like a montage from a Fellini film that leaves you with a "what the hell was that?" reaction, is likely based on such leaps of logic. And while it's true that there's a certain level of psychological benefit from owning a product, aside of its practical application, I don't have the sense it's the most productive way to go about selling things.

But back to the point: the chain of "why" ultimately results in a tautology, and the insistence that the customer wants something "just because." The problem is that this method of needs analysis encourages us to go so far into the theoretical that we lose sight of the actual, and to believe that we have not reached the "true" benefit of a product until we get to an answer that we are unable to explain, in spite of the fact that it is absurd or nonsensical. That is to say, using this technique will ultimately results in the belief that only that which is absurd or nonsensical must be important.

To some degree, this method may be useful in identifying ways to market a product that is extremely difficult to sell based on the appeal of functional benefits - but taken too far, it may become counterproductive. Most customers are not so naive as to be taken in by oblique advertising, and many are experienced enough to be suspicious of it: if a commercial message says little about the functional benefits of a product and attempts to engage the audience on an emotional or psychological level, it's a sign that the product isn't very good and the brand isn't very honest.

Don't get me wrong: I'm a fan of surrealism and I adore absurdity, which means I'll gladly watch a thirty-second film of a ballerina in a bowler hat throwing overripe apricots at a chimpanzee against the backdrop of an art museum ... but I don't think I'll buy the brand of hammer they're trying to sell me, and I'll likely have the impression it's probably overpriced and not very good at driving nails.