A Purse Named Lottie

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of celebrating my anniversary with my wife. Although I’d already presented a gift to my wife, little did I know that I would receive a lesson in storytelling when I joined her to pick up my present.

Our Arrival

The plan was to take a trip to South Park Mall and pick up a new addition to my wardrobe. Of course what was suppose to be a simple task didn’t end that way when you live so far away. The feeling I had after the surprise experience/gift was amazing and we decided to continue our day by walking through the mall and talk (shop).

During our “talk” we came across the Kate Spade store and decided to go in. My reason for going into a woman’s accessory store was to hear more about my wife’s taste so when her birthday and Christmas comes up I can come out with an easy win. However, her reason for entering a store was to possibly walk out with an item today.

Little did I know that I would receive an excellent sales lesson from a Kate Spade representative

Hi, My Name is Lottie

As we browse the new line of purses along the wall it wasn’t hard to notice the store representatives waiting for the opportunity to introduce themselves and start the sales process.

“Hello, can I help you with anything?” said the store rep (I forgot her name but for this lesson let’s call her Susan)

Our response to the question was in the form of interest in a purple satchel which led to her reply,

“Oh, Lottie! Yes she is one of our most popular purses this season” said Susan

Stunned by the way Susan addressed the purse, I decided to study the interaction between Susan, My Wife and “Lottie”.

Human Qualities over Product Features

After our introduction to Lottie, the humanizing of my wife’s purse didn’t end, because we haven’t paid for it yet. Susan continued to refer to Lottie as a woman and acknowledge that all of Kate Spade products around the store had female names. Before we moved forward on purchasing the purse here are a couple of references made to connect the product to women:

1. Feet — Susan made comments about how Lottie had cute little feet that made her unique and desirable.
2. Skin — Lottie needed to be taken care of by keeping her out of direct sunlight for long periods of time.

Lesson Learn

In the end, we bought Lottie and gave her a new home (on my wife’s arm). Susan did a good job selling Lottie to us even though we were more interested in getting a purse than adopting Lottie.

What I personally took from this experience is that people can create unhealthy attachments to material items. Those attachments can be so strong that we will go to great lengths to take care of an item rather than acknowledge that one day the item will break down.

Companies take advantage of this connection by giving these items names and human traits to seal the deal. I’m saying everybody and every item goes through a similar process but I do know my car Jean Grey is handled with great care.