2 posts tagged “grisgris”
Magic in the Marketplace
The last decade has seen the emergence of a new breed of consumer whose demands go far beyond traditional concerns like price and performance. They are empowered by unprecedented access to information, take charge of their own well being, and insist that sourcing, materials, and trade practices are key features of the brands they endorse.
Collectively referred to as the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) market segment, these consumers are interested in products like green building supplies, socially responsible investing, alternative health care, organic clothing and food, personal development media, and eco-tourism. Annual US sales in this market segment amount to $335 billion -- an impressive total said to be growing by 10 percent every year.
From freshly greened-up oil giants like BP to upstarts trumpeting their carbon neutrality via press release, corporations kick up considerable dust trying to get the attention of this powerful new consumer. More profoundly, the shift in consumer desires has prompted a new generation of start-up to take environmental, health, and social issues as profit drivers rather than a PR problem or footnote in the annual report. The meeting of these social entrepreneurs and LOHAS customers represents an historic opportunity to make what's good for the bottom line good for the world.
The purpose of this document is to explain how a new venture called Sortilege Mystical Solutions is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. Sortilege is an online service that facilitates direct access to authentic magic from around the world. We have not only a magical product, but a magical business proposition -- that in their quest to improve their health, financial fortunes, and relationships, our customers will directly and visibly improve the lives of small producers in the developing world.
The Products
We carefully select products from around the world that are known to offer protection, healing, and fortune. Our expertise and global reach allow our customers an authentically supernatural experience, otherwise available only to a few. Our core products are from Senegal, a former French colony in West Africa, where they are alternately called tere, lekki, or gris gris.
The price tag for a basic off-the-shelf Sortilege product will be around $20. Our offerings come in all shapes and sizes, from glass jars containing bundled twigs, to hollowed out animal horns filled with powder of unknown origin. The the most basic Senegalese gris gris is a small leather amulet, which makes for a distinctive piece of jewelry to be worn around the waist, neck, arm, or leg. You'll find among our offerings protection from specific injuries, assurance that the person of your choice will think of you favorably, and the guarantee of fertility. As we grow, Sortilege will continuously incorporate new products from different countries and traditions that broaden the range of benefits available to our customers.
Emphasizing the novelty and wonder of trying a new, one-of-a-kind product, each order we fill features unique product packaging. From re-purposed dyed glass bottles to intricately folded paper packages, the presentation of every product is calculated to surprise. Our reference point for package design is the innovative literary journal, McSweeney's, whose presentation changes radically with each issue.
Each package comes with detailed instructions for use, information about the producer, and the part the product plays in local tradition. Our products are a window onto life in a place our customer wouldn't otherwise be able to see. Unlike watching a movie or reading a book about people in a far away place, Sortilege products allows the consumer to actually participate in the experience of a radically different culture. The Sortilege experience is an adventure to be pondered and shared with others.
How do Sortilege Products Work?
When the famed 19th Century German writer Goethe described superstition as "the poetry of life," he put his finger on the source of magic's persistence through the ages -- the common feeling that profound forces are at work in the world that defy natural explanation. Even as science gives us an ever sharpening picture of the workings of the physical world, the belief that religion and magic offer fundamental insights about life has never flagged.
The marketplace for products and services that baffle science has flourished with the rise of the internet. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 50 percent of U.S. adults age 18 years and over have used some form of alternative medicine -- a percentage that grows each year. At the root of this trend is a profound distrust in mass marketing, politicians, the healthcare industry, and large corporations in general. From reiki to tai chi, consumers are seeking options that put them in charge of their own well being instead of relinquishing it to an outside authority.
Straddling the alternative medicine and personal development categories, Sortilege offerings are like nothing available today in the marketplace. Different from familiar "new age" and "occult" fads, Sortilege products come with a long history and a large body of satisfied users in their country of origin. How do they work? We do not know. Like many practices under the umbrella of alternative medicine, the "technology" behind of our products is known to only a few, but hundreds of everyday users confirm that they offer personal, spiritual, and hence, real physical benefits.
Our motto, "Why leave your fortune to chance?" expresses the desire of our customers to venture down unfamiliar avenues in the quest for self-improvement. It also positions magic as a leg up in the face of uncertain, momentous events -- a new venture, striking out alone in the world, having a child.
To seek the aid of magic is to allow that the normal means of accomplishing our aim may not be enough. By the protection it offers or the good fortune it promotes, magic is a kind of insurance for our aspirations in the world -- a mysterious advantage, but an advantage nonetheless. Sortilege customers can find their way to a drug store, a financial planner, or a church -- what we offer is a compelling set of options that can complement the well-worn, but uncertain paths to health, success, and happiness.
Participatory Retail -- The Web 2.0 Experience
The experience of corporations like Nike and Starbucks has shown that, in response to consumer demand, manufacturing and sourcing have taken a place alongside marketing and design as key ingredients of the brand experience. Information about who makes a product, how they are compensated, the environmental impact of production, and the safety of inputs will play an increasingly important part in the decision to buy.
The aim is to do for retail what Kiva, a site that allows users to loan directly to small entrepreneurs in the developing world, did for philanthropy. Before Kiva, philanthropy was a black box -- money disappeared into the coffers of a charitable organization and the donor was gratified in the hope that it did some good. The only significant control conventional donors have is how much and to what organization they'll give.
With Kiva, no matter how small the contribution, the lender chooses the recipient with a clear understanding of how it will be used. Just as important, feedback on the effectiveness of the giving is built into the process. If, for example, you pitch in $25 toward and $800 loan to a seamstress in Nigeria and she is able to pay the loan back on a regular schedule, it's a fair indication that your giving provided her with a real benefit. From a lender's perspective, a Kiva transaction is direct, transparent, and participatory.
Transactions in the retail sector are similarly opaque and ripe for Kiva's brand of transparency. Consumers who plunk down money for products labelled organic, healthy, eco-friendly, or fair trade must take these claims at face value. Catering to the desire of LOHAS customers to understand and control where their dollar goes and what it buys, Sortilege will leverage information and self-service functionallity to create a mindful, participatory retail experience. Let me count the ways:
1. Retail as Social Networking - The average consumer is an anonymous individual standing before a brand, a product, some minimal specifications, and a price tag. The Sortilege customer links herself purposely with a named producer in a specified location who can tailor a product to her stated needs. The retail transaction becomes a social relationship. Sortilege users will be able to connect with like-minded people who care deeply about social justice, wellness, and personal growth. Sortilege aims to be a MySpace-style community for the LOHAS consumer.
2. User generated content - As a Sortilege community develops, we will cultivate a body of user feedback, reviews, and recommendations. This will add depth to our original content and provide users with another means of engaging with and shaping the experience.
3. Customization - In societies that traditionally rely on it, magic tailored to the needs of individual customers is the norm -- the power of the internet is to extend that personalization across the globe. Sortilege will be a platform for delivering made-to-order products and interaction between consumers and service providers. The website interface will allow the customer to choose off-the-shelf products or from many levels of customization, including one-on-one consultations.
4. Transparent Transactions - From production to distribution to fulfillment, the Sortilege website will present a compelling graphical representation of the step-by-step progress of each order. For each item they purchase, Sortilege customers will know the producers, understand the production steps, and the split of the purchase price among the producer, distributor, and retailer. The guts of each transaction, traditionally concealed behind the slick veneer of the brand, are on prominent display at Sortilege -- the process is the product.
To Wit
In a recent issue of Fast Company magazine, the editors named its "Fast Fifty" emerging innovations in business. Among them is Village-to-Village Networks -- connectivity, knowledge, and financial exchange that will "become significant new means for the spread of innovation across the developing world, even as they become conduits for first-world businesses to deliver low-cost services everywhere."
Ultimately, this is our unique value proposition as a business -- we will provide the infrastructure for transparent, participatory village-to-village retail channels that enrich users at both ends of the retail stream.
Sortilege Mystical Solutions:
- offers a unique, compelling range of self-improvement options in an underdeveloped area of the alternative health/personal development category -- authentic magic,
- provides an information-rich, radically customizable retail experience,
- positions the retail transaction as a personal relationship -- it is the ultimate extension of the Fair Trade concept, allowing one-on-one interaction that is verifiably ethical and results in a personalized product.
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If you're interested in getting more information about this business proposal or would like to become a partner, contributor, or investor drop me a line.
Last week I simultaneously used eBay for the first time and made my first online supernatural power purchase. I thought I'd take a few minutes to share with you, reader, some impressions of my experience with the product.
In return for $20, four small sachets arrived in the mail from a company called The Mystic Voodoo. Each is individually packaged with it's own color, label and instruction card. Leaving no aspect of my good fortune to chance, I bought "Peace and Protection," "Love and Romance," "Money Blessings," and "Health."
Now for me, the voodoo experience brings to mind visions of a trek to a wizened old woman in a back water shack. You've heard that it's $100 to even talk to the voodoo priestess, and you guess that the copper pot right outside of her chamber is for the money so you drop the single bill you've brought in before you enter.
Maybe she can help you, maybe not. Since you're here you have no choice but to accept what she offers on her terms. There you whisper to her what you seek -- the elimination of a foe, the unearned love of some woman above your social station, success in business you can figure no other way to come by. The old woman listens to your request. She deliberates. How she sighs and moans as she ritualistically scrapes ashes and bones and dried leaves and feathers together into a little sachet. She gives it to you and asks you for a $100 more, which you don't have and tell her so ashamedly. She glowers and clicks her tongue at you and bids you leave straight away. You get up and she warns you -- do not do such and such, or you must sacrifice this thing to get what you want. There is always a bargain in these matters -- even where magic is concerned there are no free lunches. This is how I imagine a voodoo transaction going down. Now, onward to the real life online experience.
Packaging: the labels on each product are very general. I got "peace and protection" when I asked for "protection against violence." I got "money blessings" (of course, a green sachet) when I asked for "good fortune in business." I didn't request a general "money blessing," I want fortune in a venture I'm starting. Such general categories give the feeling of a batch-produced product, which detracts from the authenticity of the product. Labelling aside, even differently sized and shaped gris gris bags would have increased my confidence in my online voodoo.
Price: the saches were $5 a pop -- definitely a bargain if they perform as advertised. With magic, as with any product, you generally have to pay for the good stuff. On the streets of Dakar, Senegal, where I've done some shopping, a variety of amulets, ornaments, and charms promising health, fertility, protection from evil, etc., could be bought for around $5. But the good, good shit was outrageously expensive. The general rule of thumb seemed to be that the greater the functional specificity, the higher the price. It makes sense, after all, that if the normal rules that govern life are to be bent or broken, the labor and materials required must be very expensive indeed.
Case in point -- a large hollowed out animal horn with a stopper in the top and attached to a belt of rough animal hide I attempted to purchase one day. If worn by an airline passenger, it assured that, even if the plane went down over water, the wearer would be miraculously saved. My prospective seller, a very poor man for whom even $20 would have been a staggering windfall, would not go below the equivalent of $500! Tell me that doesn't lend credibility to the man's crash-proof horn. Tell me there isn't at least a little part of you that wants to track him down and buy it at the asking price!
Now, considering again my new Mystic Voodoo bags, a $5 price tag doesn't exactly draw high expectations. Price differentiation is key. A better strategy would be to sell the "love and happiness" bags for $10 a piece (somebody who's willing to give internet voodoo a shot isn't going to quible over $5) and offer another one that protects the bearer against knife wounds for $100. You want wishy washy magic? You pay wishy washy price. Introducing the notion that you have to pay to play lends credibility to all product offerings, cheap or dear.
Provenance: the decision to purchase magic is always premised on the authenticity of the source. Given the option, everybody would prefer to get it from the weathered old crone in the back woods. We know that everyday life is far removed from the supernatural and consequently, that if the supernatural exists at all, we'd have to make a journey to find it. And it would take an expert -- somebody with who has devoted themself to the mysterious forces we ourselves have no access to. Evidence of distance from normal life and experience with the unknown are the telltale signs magic's authentic origins. Unconvincingly, Mystic Voodoo's magic, billed as "authentic New Orleans voodoo gris gris bags powerful" have a West Liberty, Iowa address on the packing slip.
Performance: to seek a magical solution is to admit that the normal means of accomplishing our aim is inadequate. You're not confident that an apple a day is enough to ward off the docter. The usual tricks aren't landing you in bed with the lass or lad of your choice. The employment section asks far too much for far too little. People don't necessarily resort to magic because they're not willing to work to get what they want, it's that the results of their efforts fall drearily short of expectations.
According to the instruction card that is reproduced identically for each sachet, I'm to use my "gris gris bag as a focussing tool in meditation." It continues:
Hold your bag and focus on the need or desire that you have. Imagine yourself accomplishing your goal by creating a clear vision of yourself successfully attaining what it is you desire in your mind.
I'm encouraged to "do this excercise as frequently as possible throughout the day." Motherfucker! Am I dealing with a voodoo priestess or high school track coach? Shouldn't I be sacrificing a ram or something? Who needs voodoo? I could do this with a tennis ball or a handful of Ritz crackers. I don't know if I can do this...
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Post script -- bouyed by the positive feedback The Mystic Voodoo left about the transaction on Ebay (Very quick payment, smooth transaction. Buyer is an asset to Ebay!), the author has grudgingly assented to trying the prescribed meditation and visualization excercises for one of the voodoo sachets. Expect an update on product performance soon!
