"New. Improved." Right....

You know how they say most brilliant ideas come to you while you're in the shower? Well, I had one today. Ok, so maybe not brilliant, but certainly noteworthy. As I performed my routine as I normally do today, something struck me - as I usually do, I turned a normal everyday situation into a marketing discussion with myself.

Instead of my usual blank stares at the tile as the water rushes over me, today I found myself looking around at my surroundings. For the most part, there wasn't much interesting to look at [and no, that isn't me calling myself uninteresting to look at].

Let me paint the picture....behind me, there's some various shampoos - depending on how I'm feeling in a given day. Then, immediately to my left are the soaps (all bottled soaps, of course - who uses bar soaps anymore?). In front of me, right under the showerhead, are the shaving needs, including my Gillette Mach 3 Power razor. Yes, I shave in the shower. I should also add, that there are various product brands from various companies. While I do consider myself to be very brand loyal, soaps and shampoos are one area where I've never had much luck picking one brand that suits my fancy.

So, I started to read the labels of all the products in the shower with me. Like a ton of bricks, I realized that EVERY single product that I had in my shower had a label that proclaimed that it was NEW. Some were even marketed as NEW & IMPROVED. Not just one product. Every single one. There must have been six or seven different bottles in the shower, and evey last one was labeled that it was NEW. Sheesh.

So that got me thinking - were manufacturers truly putting so much money and effort into product development that they had a new product just about every couple of months? Or was this a clever marketing spin? I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it's the latter, but I can neither confirm nor deny. And I'm sure this is the type of thing that is kept well within the walls of companies like Johnson & Johnson and Proctor & Gamble. So I'll probably never know.

And another thing...are we as consumers really affected by buzz words like "New & Improved" or are we so used to seeing them that we're numb to their effects? Searching deep down within me, I'd have to say a bit of both. I think we as consumers are always looking for products and services that are better than what we have right now. We're inherently programmed to better ourselves in most cases. But at the same time, I buy these very same things all the time and I have to admit, I didn't notice until just today that ANY of these products were new and/or improved.

Craziness. So, if you're reading this, I promise to update this soon, to create my "new & improved" blog!

Garret K. Ohm