Economic Utility Obtained from “Sense of Play”: Marketing in Evolution toward “Play-Oriented Economies”

Why are most products in retail stores designed, packaged, and decorated attractively? In this paper, I present a model of how consumers obtain utility from a “sense of play” with the designs and decorations of products that are separate from their practical usefulness. Here, “play” has a broad meaning and includes activities and feelings that are not functional or necessary, e.g., recreation, diversion, playfulness, and entertainment. The model shows that as an economy grows and develops, the relative importance of a sense of play increases compared to the practical usefulness of products and the economy as a whole; in response, products become more sophisticatedly designed and heavily decorated. Therefore, economies evolve toward “play-oriented economies,” where a sense of play becomes an important element in marketing, and this biases estimates of purchasing power parity.