Things people buy

People don't buy things.
People buy stories.

That is a lesson from recent months. It holds true, and is powerful wisdom;
and it can stand to have additional light shine on it.

People also buy function; Such as a house cleaning service, or a tool to drive screws.

If you sell only the function, where the story is not important, you are selling in a commodity market where prices are low, competitive and out of your control.

People need to buy the function of transportation, but the car dealers know better than to sell function. They provide the function, but they sell the story; the sex appeal, the muscles, the fantasy.

Sometimes the only function is the story; such as an autographed baseball. Without the story, the ball is worth a few bucks. With the story it is worth maybe a million bucks. Value in antiques is more story than function. TV, movies, books and fame of all kinds are all about stories. Art and crafts usually have some aesthetic value, but they command big bucks if there is a good story about the artist.

The food pendulum has swung way to the commodity side; cheap with no story you would want to talk about. Now food is swinging toward the story side. You want to know the ingredients, know it is organic, even who grew it and where.

The ideal items to sell would...
a: provide superior functions
b: have a very interesting and compelling story that fits the times.