I first heard Frank Kern talk about this concept in one of his mass control resale videos. He cited how you could go to any trailer park and see some fancy cars with expensive rims and satellite dishes perched on almost all rooftops.

Many of them struggle with rent but choose to pay $100-$200 per month for a satellite TV package. This type of activity boggles the mind but upon closer inspection we can understand a little bit more about why it happens.

Today I had my ah ha moment. I was talking to this guy who works as a Wal-Mart cashier. He was whining about how he didn’t like his phone because “it didn’t look good”.

I probed into what he was thinking and he also complained “Cricket isn’t 3G”.

After talking with him more I found out his parents paid for his phone AND pay the monthly service fees as well. This means he’s got a free phone and he gets free UNLIMITED use of it every month. Why would you turn that down?

He further elaborated that now was a particularly tough time in his life financially. I asked him then why he would want to spend $150-$300 on a phone and add an additional $50 per month or more to his monthly expenses. He said, “Because Verizon is 3G and cricket isn’t. I want to watch funny stuff and funny videos on my phone.”

I asked him how it made sense to pay this much money every month when right now he had a phone that can send and receive calls and can send and receive unlimited texts. And his parents are taking care of him by paying the bill.

He nodded his head in agreement and said “yeah you’re right. That makes sense. I probably won’t.”

Sorry Verizon I just talked you out of a customer.

Of course, even though I felt like I did him a favor (though his parents may hate me) I’ll probably see him in a couple weeks with a shiny new Droid phone he “desperately wanted” and the $100 per month plus unlimited Verizon service plan to boot.

Instead of lamenting this tragedy there’s a lesson.

How can you make your product that “desperately wanted Droid phone”? What can you do to your offer to make it so that people who can barely afford food will desperately want to buy your stuff?

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Leave me your comments below on any interesting stories or experiences that you have had with this phenomenon.

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