Including Batteries

By Tommy Leung on 09/01/2010 in Life, Marketing

When I was a kid, birthday and Christmas presents seemed so much more grand. Every year they got less and less exciting. I’m not excited at all these days.

I look forward to the drinking and friends on birthdays and it is usually incredibly entertaining–alcohol does that. The holidays still have a magical feeling but, it’s not about the presents–happens when presents suck more and more year after year; good thing for the holiday booze!

On these gift-receiving days, there were likely times where you got a gift that required batteries and the gift-giver didn’t include the batteries and times when they did. How annoying was it when the batteries weren’t there and you didn’t have any lying around?

Those 4 AA batteries really make a difference. It’s not that apparent when the batteries are there because everything went smoothly. But when the batteries aren’t there, you notice. The gift just isn’t as good. The experience from unwrapping to unboxing to play is disrupted by having to find batteries before play. It’s not the ideal experience. If you are giving a gift, why wouldn’t you want it to be as pleasant as possible?

You’ve already walked 990 steps of 1,000. Why not go the remaining 10?

While the difference may only be a few steps or a few dollars in quantitative terms, the qualitative difference is immeasurable. I still remember who always made an effort to include batteries in gifts.

These little details are what separates the men from the boys–or the women from the girls–in life and the professionals from the amateurs in business.

Most of the time, these little touches aren’t hard to do or inconvenient. Their payoff is so much bigger than the effort they required; their ROI is fantastic. It separates you from everyone else who looks just as good on paper and has just as much talent.

Sometimes, you aren’t going to win on sheer force of merit. That $500 gift without batteries might get left alone in the corner while the $50 gift with batteries gets all the play.