The Ideal Consumer Journey

Chatting with a woman at a party, my wife's research on the mission stations set up for aboriginal people came up. 'Oh' she said, 'I think that's terrible.' 'What?' 'The work missionaries do.' Certainly there are some terrible accounts of missionary behaviour and principles, but she objected to the very idea of going to another people with the intention of introducing them to Christianity.

What did she do? She worked in marketing for supermarkets - specifically designing the 'ideal consumer journey'. She or someone like her puts the milk in the corner diagonally opposite the entrance, puts the displays of kids treats at kids eye level, and ranges all the other attacks on the subconscious motivation system that can be discovered, with the goal of turning us into ideal consumers. We begin the journey as human beings, but finish as ideal consumers.

Is there a difference? The missionaries aim to share the best thing they have for free. The marketer gets paid a lot to lead the consumer cattle right up to the stun-bolt unafraid, even eager.

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