The $150,000 Marketing Master Class | by Gustavo Souss | Jun, 2023

Do you like to eat bananas? For some reason, I don’t particularly care for them. For the sake of the case, however, let’s assume that both of us love the fruit.

With that assumption, how much do you think a banana costs today (2019)? You can get five bananas on Amazon Fresh in the US for $1.53. That comes out to 31 cents per banana — and these are organic bananas. Bananas are incredibly cheap — probably one of the cheapest fruits out there. It’s no wonder why so many of Odwalla’s and Naked’s juices contain bananas.

Considering how cheap bananas are, how amazing of a marketer would one have to be to sell a single banana for $120,000? Yes, you heard that right — US dollars! If that seems outrageous to you, what about selling not one, but two bananas for that same amount and even a third one for $150,000?

A professor once taught me that marketing is the skill of convincing someone to buy something that he or she does not need. Thus, a great marketer is one who can make you pay exorbitant amounts of money for things you don’t need, right? When I read in the news about the three bananas that sold for almost half a million, I couldn’t help but search for the masterful marketing lessons behind them. After all, you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who can turn 31 cents into $120,000.

During my marketing years, I always wanted consumers of certain products to show the same passion seen in sports fans. Once, I was able to see average consumers become advocates and fans of Pantene. How did I do it? I invited a group of about 200 consumers to a 101-hair care lesson taught by the department head of Research and Development. Throughout an hour-long session, he described the structure of the hair, what made it shine, and why it felt smooth and silky. He then explained why Pantene was such a unique product that could take great care of any hair.

Watching the customers, it was clear that they no longer viewed Pantene as a commoditized hair product but rather one that would provide them with many benefits. From now on, every time they use the product, all of these will come to their minds. My takeaway was this: ‘Make them aware of the frame of reference’ that will give new relevance to the product or experience.

As you can imagine, a Banana (this one deserves a capital ‘B’) selling for $120,000 requires a frame of reference that goes well beyond that of even a most upscale grocery store. In this case, it was Art Basel Miami, and the banana was part of an art installation called “Comedian” in which the banana was simply duct-taped to a wall. This installation was not orchestrated by any old comedian, but by the artist Maurizio Cattelan who is well-known for his controversial pieces. This particular piece was meant to be an ironic statement on the current art scene.

The “Comedian” exhibit is a great example, but it does not teach the marketing skills required to sell a banana for such an exorbitant price.

Any successful startup has a story — whether true or fabricated to sell the concept. Take Facebook, the brainchild of an awkward nerd who wanted to meet girls. Or how about the iPod (and subsequent iPhone), a device designed so Steve Jobs’ daughter could have a Walkman with 1,000 songs. Even Uber, whose founders were already wealthy, allegedly created it because they couldn’t get a ride on one random night in Paris. As consumers, we do not buy as much into product features, benefits, and attributes as we do buy into their stories. These stories happen to have some commonalities: they are simple narratives of unexpected and credible events that evoke some memorable emotions that lead to the story being told again. By the way, “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath is an old but practical book to describe what makes a story stick.

Our Banana has its own story. The artist had a habit of bringing a banana with him every time he traveled and hanging it in his hotel room to find inspiration, as told by Perrotin, the Gallery’s owner. It is unclear (at least for me and without proper research) how true the story is, but it is clear that it gives the exhibit a deep identity and purpose. So, by promoting the story behind the banana, they assign an unquantifiable value to the product. In this case, the banana. There is an additional element to the story that is even more impressive — the installation itself has zero value. What’s actually sold is the concept. It comes with the artist’s certificate of authenticity and installation instructions. It is up to the owners to replace the banana whenever it rots.

So far, this is what we have: the framework of the most important US art fair, the story behind a controversial artist and his ironic, high-priced piece that supposedly is not for sale, and finally, and an element of scarcity — the artist will only produce three certificates. The number itself is not to be taken lightly. The irony is to sell ‘pure air’ not once but multiple times, which builds upon the story element. However, selling more than three may make it irrelevant, ordinary, and less appreciated.

Besides all the good things said, the actual marketing lesson here is in public relations. When something grabs your attention as a consumer or reader, you cannot stop consuming any content about the product or its story. Remember when Steve Jobs passed away? You probably read countless news articles about his death, even though they all had the same information. Nevertheless, you consumed them all.

We don’t t know if the installation was sold to genuine buyers or not, but it was definitely an attention-grabbing headline and promotional benefit for Art Basel Miami. Furthermore, it showed how to double-dip and even triple-dip into the same story. They followed up with several headlines, such as “Someone ate the $120,000 banana at Art Basel” and “$120K banana art taken down from Art Basel after ‘uncontrollable crowd’ situation”. There is nothing easier for the press than to follow up on popular news items, as the editor knows many eager readers will happily engage the subject.

Andrew Russeth, the executive editor of ARTnews, says, “Comedian is delivering a dark joke, and it is on all of us,” I couldn’t agree more. But we have one more lesson to take from it. As an art lover, Weezie Chandler said, “You can do anything and once you’re established, you can get away with it.” That is all about reputation, and it’s our last mastery marketing lesson from artist Maurizio Cattelan, who I can’t congratulate enough for giving us all this fantastic lecture.

Lastly, remember that he is not an artist but a salesman, in the same way that we all are in our professions, which all depend on great marketing!