Falling in love through sensory
Now, back to my iPod mini...
I'm not the only one who is head-over-heels with my new purchase, school teacher George Masters took time out of his busy schedule to create a fantastic online ad for his mini. It's obviously produced with alot of love.
I was thinking about the iPod craze this morning. What it is about iPod that invokes such a passion in many of it's purchasers? The white headphones, which Seth Godin discusses in Free Prize Inside? The overall sexy design? The accessories? The ease of use? The funky colours? The great commercials with the funky music (although they really should equip every new iPod with the music from those ads...just to round out that experience)?
I think it's all of that and one more thing...
It's also the way you handle an iPod. The sensitive wheel requires a feather touch.
You don't control an iPod, you CARESS it.
It's sensual. It's tender. It's loving. It's the way you handle your new baby when you are falling in love with him/her. It's the way new lovers tenuously touch one another.
It's brilliant. You can't make the machine any more loveable than incorporating a totally interactive sensory experience - one that the customer actually creates themselves. And I read through the literature. They don't accentuate this...but inately, iPod users learn to lovingly caress their pretty little machines. [I wonder: does the mini make this even more tender, since it is the smaller, childlike version of it's parent: iPod?]
There have been loads of studies on how touch creates bonds between two people, people and animals and people and objects, but what about the TYPE of touch? And do we participate in our own evolution of caring by the way WE handle something?
I have a theory that if they loaned everyone an iPod for a day to use to their heart's content, almost everyone would fall in love with it after caressing it for the day.
I'm not the only one who is head-over-heels with my new purchase, school teacher George Masters took time out of his busy schedule to create a fantastic online ad for his mini. It's obviously produced with alot of love.I was thinking about the iPod craze this morning. What it is about iPod that invokes such a passion in many of it's purchasers? The white headphones, which Seth Godin discusses in Free Prize Inside? The overall sexy design? The accessories? The ease of use? The funky colours? The great commercials with the funky music (although they really should equip every new iPod with the music from those ads...just to round out that experience)?
I think it's all of that and one more thing...
It's also the way you handle an iPod. The sensitive wheel requires a feather touch.
You don't control an iPod, you CARESS it.
It's sensual. It's tender. It's loving. It's the way you handle your new baby when you are falling in love with him/her. It's the way new lovers tenuously touch one another.
It's brilliant. You can't make the machine any more loveable than incorporating a totally interactive sensory experience - one that the customer actually creates themselves. And I read through the literature. They don't accentuate this...but inately, iPod users learn to lovingly caress their pretty little machines. [I wonder: does the mini make this even more tender, since it is the smaller, childlike version of it's parent: iPod?]
There have been loads of studies on how touch creates bonds between two people, people and animals and people and objects, but what about the TYPE of touch? And do we participate in our own evolution of caring by the way WE handle something?
I have a theory that if they loaned everyone an iPod for a day to use to their heart's content, almost everyone would fall in love with it after caressing it for the day.
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