Thank you, God. I am blessed indeed to be an American.
I was driving my pickup back from a drilling location the other night, and, as I am wont to do, my mind was wonderin'. I stopped at an Allsups to pick up a cold drink and some chips to keep me awake for the several hour drive back home.
There in the cooler was... Desani water. More expensive ounce for ounce than coke. Or beer. Hell, not quite single malt scotch, but closing in. And an order of magnitude more expensive than oil, the worlds cheapest commodity liquid. The stuff I have elected to devote my life to finding and producing. They sold their company to Coke for some multi billion dollars. For selling water. Coke. The company with the widest distribution of bottled liquid anywhere on the planet. the company that was dumb enough to sell water with a bunch of "secret ingredients" all mixed up in it for less per ounce than the people who just sell water.
This is what we do better in America than anywhere else. We sell stuff. We market stuff. I mean, the multibillion dollar value for Desani as a company isn't their "secret ingredients". It isn't the "barrier to entry" for bottling their water. It isn't the distribution of their product. It is the brand, and that people buy it for big dolla' instead of sucking it out of a water fountain for free.
The value of that company is the value of its marketing... of its ability to sell... and nothing more. Friggin' Brilliant. No commie nation can compete with that, because in scarcity economies, people actually behave rationally with their money. They buy the cheapest Vodka necessary to get drunk enough to forget their meaningless existence serving the State. They DON'T spend their hard earned money buying... Water.
The only difference between a commodity that is at the mercy of world commodity markets and a brand? Marketing. Utah's Sinclair is trying it out West with their American Produced Gasoline efforts. I hope they sell the hell out of their gas. Hell. I hope Sinclair becomes the Desani of Oil.
It's reminds me of the Prius. A vehicle with a new cool technology that allows it to get pretty good mileage and is a pretty peppy drive. However, Honda sold a car in the late 1970's that got nearly twice the mileage of a Prius AND it was cheap. But it wasn't "hybrid". See, people want to buy a 'hybrid' because its a 'hybrid'. They are buying a term. The term infers "environmental steward". Pretty damn good marketing, but make no mistake... it is all marketing. You pay for the privilege of owning one of these bad boys.
Even more ludicrous are the Prius naysayers... you know, the ones who say "the additional cost of the car is not recoverable from fuel savings", or "the all in cost of ownership and fuel use is worse than a suburban because the cost to replace that batteries and to dispose of the batteries in 5 years si so high". So what?What a load. When was the last time anyone let REASONS like "all in cost of ownership" or "lifetime fuel use" play a role in purchasing a car? Car purchases are nearly 100% marketing driven. Is it an attractive brand? Does it denote status? Will chicks dig me? Will the other soccer moms be envious? Bravo to Toyota for defining a new effective marketing theme to join the classics... I am sexier than you, I am richer than you, I am more pragmatic than you (not a huge one brackat, granted, which is why , Subaru and Volvo are a niche market, mostly popular in places like Vermont), and now, I am more environmentally sensitive than you. Toyota is kicking us in the ass in our one true strength... Marketing!
momma, flags, and apple pie?
Um, I agree with the Prius vs. Honda comment. Even in the '80s the Honda CRX HF was hitting in the 60 mpg range with a little style to boot. But dollar for dollar, I'm sticking with my Corvette. Gas is too cheap to do otherwise.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 13, 2007 at 06:25 PM
Pretty damn prescient. By 9 days!
http://wcbstv.com/seenon/local_story_193212517.html
Posted by: Oil Field Trash | July 14, 2007 at 10:35 AM