He May Not Be A Lawyer....

I have another brother.

Yes, I know, I don't mention him that much, probably because he doesn't drive me crazy quite the same way as the first one.

This brother has saved me a few ducats over the past few months, given me a real life lesson in the power of marketing, and just in general is quite wise. All that from one three minute conversation.

A few months ago, on a Friday afternoon I was on the phone with this brother. I had just been to the candy store, and was very excited because I was about to perform a taste test. For years, the store I had been to sold funky flavored jelly beans under its own brand name. Recently, it had brought Jelly Belly Brand into its store, replete with a beautiful display and special Jelly Belly bags. Some of the flavors were different, but for the most part they were the same.

So I filled a small bag with Jelly Belly buttered popcorn flavored jelly beans, and a bag of the store brand butter flavored popcorn jelly beans. I picked that flavor, because I figured it was such a distinctive taste it would be obvious if the taste was off or different in any way.

I took into account the popularity of the NEW Jelly Belly display in the store, and did not deduct any points for freshness, as the new is always more popular than the old, the store brand butter flavored popcorn jelly beans were probably not flying out of the store quite as quickly as they once did.

Anyway, I was on the phone with this brother, and relayed all this information to him, and then tested the two jelly beans. I proceeded to explain the freshness issue, but determined that overall the taste was so close I didn't see a difference.

To which he replied:

"I can't imagine what could be so different about a jelly bean that it is worth $3.00 more per pound. It's a jelly bean."


INDEED.