A Piece of My Mind

I just got a welcome email from Tag Heuer 24, a club dedicated to provide the latest information and held special events for Tag owners. What strikes me the most was the last sentence on the email: live every second like you mean it.

In an attempt to give personalized attention to their customers, many brands have set up clubs and membership programs. From frequent flyers programs which offer many advantage and benefit for their dedicated members - anything from priority check-in, seat upgrade, to free flight - to owner clubs like what Tag Heuer and Mercedes Benz have, each one of this so-called society bears the image of exclusiveness. I’d like to compare the existence of these branded societies with fraternities and sororities in college. Secret society or fraternity and sorority require its candidates to undergo certain process, like pledging, before having the privilege of being called members. This society has its own code of conduct, and above all, a series of activities exclusively available to its members. We all wore our society T-shirts or sweatshirts in college to show everyone that we belonged to the in-crowd.

The paradigm of fraternity and sorority is now being adopted by the consumer industry to bridge a closer relationship to its customers, by sending a subliminal message that: “if you are our brand consumer, you belong to our exclusive society.” Mercedes Benz Club is one of a few clubs with worldwide membership programs and routine activities, from gathering to social activities like blood drive or donations to refugee camps. This society does not only represent the pride of being a Benz owner, but also somehow manages to become a communication forum among its members, exchanging ideas on automotive matters, showing concerns through organized social events, and above all, a global friendship based on a simple common interest: a Benz automobile. I went to one gathering with a friend of mine whose passion for this German car is probably more than his passion for work, and it’s really fascinating to see them talk about cars one minute and then organize this huge fundraiser event another minute.

While Benz is bringing its customers closer through many activities, Tag Heuer is dedicated to promote a spirited society of Tag owners, with a determination to live life to the fullest. As stated in its tag line, Tag Heuer is encouraging its society to continuously enrich their life with as many experience as they can. With the same principle that Tag brings to F1 racing, where even a nanosecond can make a huge difference, Tag Heuer 24 is sending a very strong message to its members: “You are one of a kind, just like the watch that you’re wearing, so live every second like you mean it.”

In a society where we are often being judged by what kind of crowds we belong to, the consumer industry has responded sharply by maintaining the so-called society of customers, the chosen ones if I might add, and by offering a personalized treatment to each one of its members. The reason behind this phenomenon is very obvious: the society of existing customers is a lucrative market, pampering them literally means encouraging them to keep buying the same brand, and even triggering a very effective word-of-mouth advertising: “I love the way Tag is treating me, you should really buy this watch to be a part of us.”

As customers, should we respond negatively to this new form of advertising, or should we embrace it with open arms? Well, if we have spent hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars on that one brand, it’s only fair that we’re given a royal treatment, if you asked me.

With everything that’s going on in my life in the last six months, the only time that I have to read anything that is not news or work-related is when I am waiting for something, which is not merely enough. I do, however, always squeeze some time to do book-shopping whenever I travel. Sometimes, you can find a great book without even looking. Like this one time, I was waiting for the Bebe fashion show to start at GI, it was running very late, so I decided to pick up whatever caught my eye at the Kino shelves, and I ended up with this book by Chad Kultgen. It’s insulting to women, its graphic rendering of the inside of a man’s head is deeply disturbing, and yet I laugh (if you’re not easily insulted, you should read it just to have a good laugh).

Some other books were on my reading list because it comes highly recommended, like Khaled Hosseini’s, Stephanie Meyer’s, Daniel Keyes’s, and J.D. Salinger’s. The others are on my list because it helps me grow as a writer, like this collection of stories by today’s great writers (Jonathan Safran Foer, Nick Hornby, and Dave Eggers to name a few). The Book of Other People, if anything, continuously teaches me on describing characters to most, unimportant tidbits, just for the sake of characterization. Or to teach me about shifting points of view, looking at things from different angles and see how incredibly different the experience can be, and yes I’m talking about Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (which, believe it or not, I read in one sitting when I was getting my hair-done at Peter before an event).

Some I read just because the fun of it, like Sophie Kinsella’s and David Sedaris’s. There are two local books that I picked up for different reasons: Stranger Than Fiction which is written by a friend whose writing style I adore, and Love, Hate, & Hocus Pocus for its funny, interesting synopsis in the back cover.

There is one book, however, that I spend the extra-effort and money to get my hands on. I’ve always been a great fan of The Daily Show of Jon Stewart, that guy is one funny bastard with a talent of making anything politically incorrect with one witty repertoire after another. So when he wrote Naked Pictures of Famous People, I went searching across bookstores in Jakarta and came with nothing. I tried Amazon on March and they didn’t ship that book internationally, and I was like: what the hell? But last month, as I was buying Denzel’s Fallen from Amazon, I also put this book on the cart (hoping that Amazon has changed its shipping policies), and yay, two weeks later the packaged arrived! And I looove it. Stewart has managed to whip every single public figure that we know (politicians, philanthropist, to celebrities) in 17 essays, every one of them is rude, wrong on so many level, yet smartly hilarious. My favorite parts: weekends with the Kennedys and mock correspondences between Princess Di and Mother Theresa. And no, boys, no naked pictures of anyone in that book.

If you’ve bought and read Divortiare, I’m giving you the limited chance of enjoying the extended version of the book (that’s 23 pages extra!). I will be e-mailing you personally the signed pdf copy of the extended pages (like you care about the signed part anyway hahahaha). To be eligible for this opportunity, all you have to do is send an e-mail to ika_natassa@mac.com, and answer the following questions:
1. Where did you buy Divortiare?
2. What is your favorite part of the book?
Looking forward to hearing from you.  This offer is valid until August 9, 2008.