Jan 15 2010
No Pain Payment [Text message as form of payment]
$1mm … $4mm … whatever the amount, text message-based payments are a big deal for this Haiti rebuilding effort.
And it makes perfect sense to me why - it’s a painless payment.
In less than 25 characters, you can pledge money to a charity through your cell phone bill, something you won’t see for maybe 2 or 3 weeks. It’s the same psychology that makes credit cards so dangerous; that makes teenagers text over their 1,000 allowed; that turns a pay-nothing-for-24-month deal into a real problem….
It’s the same psychology that got us into the debt crisis, and the same psychology that allows iTunes to be so successful.
The buyer never feels the pain of the purchase.
Don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying it’s a bad thing in this case! It’s just that it’s encouraging to know that someone has figured out that the psychology that hurts us in many cases, can be used for the public good.
It does make me wonder if this type of strategy is going to be more and more prevalent in society for other less altruistic purposes? I’m already a victim of the Straws of Subscription (these are the same straws that broke the camel’s back). Magazines, TV, internet, phone … I’d love MobileMe and a better HD package but “I need to be careful in this economy.”*
*Translation: I’m broke.
With the speed that some of the services got up and running, I’m glad that we have smart, business savvy people running some of these relief efforts. I couldn’t have done it better myself.
