MARKETING EVOLUTION
Time Out! Embracing Play
In Our Chores
By Marion Wakahe
A
nother new year and as always a
new set of expectations placed on
us from within and without. On
a personal level, many of us set New Year
resolutions to improve our financial status,
drop weight, get that promotion, improve
relationships, amongst others.
Professionally, most marketers are
under pressure to improve sales, product
presence in the market, determining new
markets, overseeing product launches,
managing communications (especially
with customers), amongst others.
This year is particularly unique in that
many companies are feeling the pressure
of recouping significant losses as a result
of the unfortunate political upheaval
witnessed literally the whole of last year.
In our very hectic, modern lives that
puts great pressure on us to perform and
improve, we focus heavily on personal,
family and professional commitments that
we have basically forgotten how to ‘live’
and have fun.
Walking in the streets of Nairobi and
looking at the faces of many individuals,
I’m quickly reminded of the movie ‘The
Dark Knight.’ One of my favorite actors,
the late Heath Ledger (who played the
role of Joker), tells a story of how his
father slit his mouth so he could have a
permanent smile on his face. “Why so
serious son, why so serious?”
68 MAL22/18 ISSUE
I feel I could ask people on the streets the
same question and get them to smile more
(of course, no knives). My belief is that
we’re too serious, we need to smile some
more.... The unfortunate thing that happens to us
when we become adults is that we decide
play is for children. Most will dismiss play
for adults as petty, unproductive or a guilty
pleasure and might even brand you insane.
No doubt, it’s necessary, necessary to
get those numbers in, ensure product is
available in all outlets, product launches
are successful, etc. Those in no way
should be discarded. But here is an idea,
in addition to those very important goals
why not set the goal for more play, humor
and laughter? Generally we play, laugh
and joke around but most of us don’t
think of allocating time and resources for
the same. According to Dr. Bowen F. White, “The
only kind of play we honor is competitive
play.” The kind of play that’s purposeless,
focusing more on the activity than the
result is something many adults do not out
of schedule but as a result of circumstance,
e.g. when playing with kids.
At the beginning of this year as I
considered how I’d like to see my end year
look like, I decided I wanted to be happy,
a happiness that’s beyond the boosted
self-esteem that’s as a result of meeting
my goals; a pure child-like happiness.
And so yes, I set a goal to play more, laugh
more, be more silly (including smiling at
very serious strangers), dance more and
sing more.
A good number of us will even dismiss
play as childish, but I beg to differ; there
is a difference between childish and child-
like. Childish is incessantly picking at
your nose, child-like is having an open
heart and mind to new experiences. It’s no
wonder that a lot of the innovators of our
time were considered more of grown up
children.
The Wright brothers for example were very
child-like. Th ey were open to imagination
and experimented on ‘planes’ that made
them look silly to many then. However as
someone said, the Wright brothers were
In our very hectic, modern lives that puts great
pressure on us to perform and improve, we focus
heavily on personal, family and professional com-
mitments that we have basically forgotten how to
‘live’ and have fun.