Rethinking The Product Paradigm.
It’s insane to me, as a market-driven society (but maybe that’s the point), how many things we’re blindly willing to pay for when home remedies and natural solutions will work just as fine, if not better, than their overly-priced chemical ridden alternatives!
Headache? Try some water or peppermint.
Pain? Try some ganj.
Itchy nose due to allergies? Try some vaseline.
Can’t stop sneezing? Try flushing your nose out with salt water.
Stuffy nose? Try spicy food or Vicks under your nose.
Grimy bathtub? Try baking soda and vinegar.
Teeth stained from coffee or tea? Try brushing the stain out with baking soda and a bit of water.
Smelly pits? Try a homemade deodorant made of coconut oil and baking soda.
In each of the above cases, alongside home-remedies that have personally worked for me, there was no commercial attachment towards the product, such that it would incur a premium due to a fancy brand name.
In fact, as a noteworthy example, after finding out how effective baking soda and vinegar can be for cleaning, even more so than the commercial brands out there which I’ve tried and just end up leaving my bathroom smelling toxic and me feeling light-headed by the end, I noticed the “natural” aisle in the grocery store started selling spray-bottles filled with vinegar marketed as a cleaning product. The rub? It was almost double the cost of a giant container of vinegar in the food section! Some marketing genius out there realized how effective vinegar can be for cleaning and they packaged it up and asked us to pay a premium for the bottle and its label—not the actual vinegar contained inside.
Perhaps the real takeaway from all of this is: that which glitters isn’t always gold, and it’s important to think outside of the box using logic and reasoning for a more effective, faster, cheaper and arguably healthier solution to your problems. Why riddle yourself with potential side effects when there’s a more natural solution out there just waiting to be figured out?
In a world chock full of box-thinkers and marketing mavens pulling the strings, I think it’s important to ask ourselves the more meaningful question of ‘why’ before becoming so readily willing to buy.
To be honest, this rationale and mode of thinking actually creeps into the idea of ‘healthy eating’ as well. Is what’s being marketed as a ‘healthy’ salad sold in-store really that much better than a homemade salad paired alongside homemade dressing? But that’s a topic for another day…
-never forget: marketing matters.