Kurt Hanson: Moroccan Argan Oil and your radio station

One of the bad effects of running is that it’s sometimes rough on your feet, especially if you are a little too laissez-faire about taking care of them, as I may have been in recent years. This has led me in recent weeks to a cool Chinese-made battery-powered pedicure filing device (Amope Pedi Perfect; it’s like a DeWalt floor sander for your feet) and the need for foot lotion to apply afterwards.

As shown in the accompanying photo, I came home from Walgreens recently with a product called Profoot Heel Rescue Superior Moisturizing Foot Cream, which I apparently purchased because it had a colorful cardboard add-on at the top of the bottle highlighting the fact that it contains Moroccan Argan Oil.

Yep, I apparently paid something like $18 for 16 ounces of body lotion because it contains Moroccan Argan Oil.

And the interesting thing psychologically about this, I believe, is that I have no idea what Moroccan Argan Oil is. (I’m not even 100% sure I know where Morocco is!) And I’d certainly never heard of it before I made my purchase.

Walgreens and Profoot separated me from my $18 because (A) I wanted to buy a specialist product (not body lotion, not face cream, not hand cream, but specifically foot cream, even though, now that I think about it, I can’t imagine that the needs of hands and feet are that different) and (B) this particular foot cream came with a unique and special and impressive-sounding ingredient that no other product had.

If you’re a broadcaster or a webcaster or a music subscription service or a vendor to broadcasters and/or webcasters, you would probably be better off too if (A) you market yourself as a specialist in a specific product category and (B) you have a Moroccan Argan Oil in your product too.

This is why Crest toothpaste specialized in cavity prevention (not whiter teeth or fresh breath) and contained Fluoristan (later, Fluoristat) — or for that matter why Gleem toothpaste was allegedly designed especially for people who can’t brush after every meal (admittedly a much weaker specialization) and contained GL-70.

This is why I have somehow become convinced I prefer Triscuits because they are made from 100% soft winter wheat, even though they cost 50% more than house brands of the same type of product and I had never heard of 100% soft winter wheat until I read about it on the Triscuits box a couple of years ago.

This is why Songza did so well a year or two ago with its “Music Concierge” front-end, which, rather than you telling it that you wanted to listen to Today’s Country Hits, first had you telling Songza you were “Jogging at a Gym” and then subsequently you could, from a list of pre-selected options, tell it that you wanted to listen to Today’s Country Hits.

The Music Concierge was Songza’s very effective version of Moroccan Argan Oil.

Your Moroccan Argan Oil might be a great morning show, or Twofer Tuesdays and Album Sides Weekends, or a great contest (e.g., WLS’s “Sing It and Win”), or a Music Genome Project, or Beats Music’s “The Sentence” (which is a more elaborate and detailed version of the Music Concierge (e.g., “I am jogging at a gym with my peeps and want to rock the house with Today’s Country Hits”)).

But it really works. And now excuse me while I go buy an Artisanal Grilled Chicken sandwich at McDonald’s.