An Important Lesson About Marketing For My Daughter

Tonight we went to our local Lowe's hardware store to purchase a pressure washer because reasons.  While we were there, trapped there by a torrential rainstorm, we looked at a number of other things.  I have been looking for an organizer for my new paints.  Preferably one that not only worked on the desktop, but could be used to transport my paints to events if necessary.

I need to get rid of all my old Games Workshop pots that are basically polychromatic hockey pucks now, and all my new paints (Reaper Master Series Paints and Vallejo Model Color,) come in tall, skinny dropper bottles (which I love.)  So, long story short, I'm looking for a tackle box-style organizer that is tall enough for the new bottles.

We went to the organization aisle, where they keep all the plastic bins and stuff.  While there, I saw this on a separate display:

It's a Keter "Cantilever Organizer," which means when it opens, the top layer stays flat (instead of tipping up, causing anything you have stored up there rolling around.)  The bottom layer has enough head room for  the tall bottles, and the top layer has shallower bins for the few GW paints I still have.

Both layers have removable bins, so you can work with small batches of stuff, or take some out to create a bigger space.  I think it's really cool, and it was $14.98.  So I put it in the cart.

Now you may have noticed, it is pink.  Like, really, really pink.  Surely you don't think I looked askance at the color, do you?  Not me.

"Does it come in 'Man' color?" is what I asked, only half joking.

Turns out it does not.  This item is only available in pink, because it is for... you know.  Don't make me say it.

Artists.

Look at the picture on the label.

Crayons, poster paint, oil paints, white glue, sponges, chalk, glass beads, etc.  And you know what else has to be in one of those bottles?  Glitter.  Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

But while pink is not my favorite color (it does nothing for my skin tones,) I need the case for my own art supplies, so into the cart it went.

Now, a smart shopper knows to check the different sections of the store, and never just rely on what you find on a display or end cap.  So before we left, we headed to the toolbox section to compare with other options.

Most of the toolboxes were not what I needed, as most have a large central bay for tools, which would be no good for organizing miniature paint bottles.  But then I saw one that was just what I needed:

Check that out!  That little beauty is the Keter "9-3/8-in Black Resin Tool Box."  It's got a cantilevered top, so that the stuff you put in the small bins don't roll around when you open it, and the bottom has larger bins.  And get this, all the bins are removable!  And best of all, it's in my favorite color, black!  I have almost everything in black, because it's neutral, it's slimming, and it expresses my faux existential nihilist aesthetic very well.  Also, I might be Batman.

But look how manly it is!  I mean, it's clearly for men, because it is designed to hold bolts, and wire nuts, and drywall screw mounts, and...are those angled shims in the lower left corner?  They look like cosmetic sponges, but anyway...this is for holding hardware.  And the most fabulous roll of electrical tape ever!

Nothing...artistic here.  So if I buy this manly container, and use it to hold my art supplies, that makes me super frugal and masculine.  OBVIOUSLY this is the case for me.

And it was on sale for $24.98, down from $29.98.

This demanded a lesson for my little girl (once again, genderstapo, my little boy is only three and not very bright, so he wouldn't have gotten much out of it, even though he's the one who's going to get screwed by crap like this in the future.)

I pointed out the two cases side by side, and showed her how they were the exact same product, made from the same materials, the same metal latches, and everything.  Then I showed her how the pink one was named differently, was shown with art supplies instead of hardware, and was roughly half the price.

I let her puzzle over why that could be.

The reason of course dear readers, is marketing.  Not only do you change the name and image to appeal to different genders, but the price point must fit the expectations of the product.  Tool boxes are serious business, and people expect to pay within a certain range.  But an "art organizer" that is sold in the hardware store needs to be priced to move, as the market there is not as large.

Walk down the street to the craft store and sell the same kit, and it will cost you an extra ten bucks.  Shit, put the word "scrapbooking" on it and you're looking at an extra twenty.

I told my little girl about how you can't let the label determine something's value (I keep thinking there's some greater lesson here, but I can't think of it.  Oh well, I'm just a "dumb man," what do you expect of me?) and that she needs to look at everything critically when shopping or doing anything else.

By the way, here's how the case is working for me:

I will be doing the old painter's trick of painting a spot on the cap so you can find the colors easy from above (never needed to before now.)  And alas, the GW paints have to lay down to fit, but that will be no problem.

I like my pink case, and feel that my masculinity is secure enough to go out carrying my pink cantilevered organizer.

But only after I've decorated it with stickers, and maybe some rhinestones.  Do they make Bedazzlers that work on resin?

Very secure.