Differentiation

Aesthetic is the differentiator — between ours and theirs, domestic and professional, his and hers… Even relatively new things have nuanced variants for granular market segments, each filled with people who are so confused as to believe that they have individual preferences. Shelves have been growing longer, getting taller, supporting increasing numbers of thin products, some of which are standing with their chests out so far that they are falling into aisles. But things like grooming products, weapons and sex toys have been collapsing into a unified form language. While there are still color choices, varying measures of capacity and segmented brands to appeal to different shoppers — they can easily be mapped to one another across departments and stores, compared as commodities as swappable as sand. Even that tiny, macho gun shop down the street from your house will sell you a pistol in 5 different finishes, with a grip that makes your finger feel like it is under panties. They will come in beautiful boxes that boast about your newly purchased strength, like pheromones in body spray. This emerging mass will eventually pull in greeting cards and coffee; while things will continue working as they have been, to the end, all climaxing in the same ecstatic blasts.