Value

Last week I was attempting to place the monetary value on the various components of a public relations campaign. A couple of pieces were hard for me to define and box into a standard fee structure; one that would more commonly resemble a pricing structure for advertising.

I threw the question out to a group of public relations friends I speak to daily. Immediately I received interesting feedback. Of the group of 10 or so who responded, not one gave me their estimation of cost, but each one presented their opinion on the significance of the item to the overall goal. Their quick and surprisingly frank comments made me consider the term “value” and how it is applied to our everyday considerations.

A definition of value includes the consideration of monetary worth: an amount expressed in money and considered a fair exchange for something. Another definition is the importance or usefulness of something to someone.

Take earbuds for example. Have you priced those little gems lately? Earbuds are the tiny headphones that connect into iPods and various other MP3 players. They stick inside your ears and basically cancel out noise, except what you want to hear.

Our twin sons are gifted and talented at losing their earbuds and/or wearing them out. So, it’s not uncommon for us to be shopping for something, totally unrelated, say groceries and one of them blurts out, “Hey! Think they’ve got any earbuds here? I need a new pair.”

Since you could wrap these up in a small ball and hid them in a pill bottle, you would think their monetary value should be about $2. Even if they were priced at $2 each, whoever produces earbuds for the universe would still make money off me. In actuality the starting price for these small listening devices is around $10; and that’s for the plain variety.

Branch out in earbuds colored like the American flag or the Jamaican flag and you’ll spend an extra $5. Pick a pair with comfort padding for better positioning in your ear and you’ll cough up another $10.

Rummaging through a box of electronic supplies this past weekend, I came across four or five orphaned earbuds. No one could honestly answer why they had been abandoned or why they were any less valuable then the pair we had replaced at $10 a pop earlier that afternoon. But with as much mom flair as I could muster, I rolled them up into a clear plastic baggy, waved it dramatically over my head and declared “Earbuds!”

This weekend the boys are part of a church-sponsored mission trip out of town. This same destination was one of the highlights of their summer last year and they’ve been planning their return trip ever since. Included in the packing list distributed by our youth minister was the recommendation for each youth to pack a couple of extra pairs of earbuds. It’s hard to imagine the noise and the disagreements if every one of these kids wanted to listen to their own tunes.

So I’ll end with an alternate definition of value: the importance or usefulness of something to somebody. Apparently earbuds are priceless.