Women...The Original Marketing Masters
Now I know I'm going to catch lots of flack for this post, so let me say before hand...if you're offended, you're missing the point. This post is about MARKETING.
Think about it. Women have been marketing themselves (mostly for survival) throughout history. (Men have been too...but not in the same way, or at the extreme that women had to.) I'm not trying to be sexist, I'm trying to make a point. Consider...
What if we all had to market...
The same product. (I'm sure lots of women will disagree here)
Every product had the same "benefits" (Packaged differently for sure, but we won't go into that.)
There were more products than buyers. (Talk about market saturation!)
A buyer could only have one product at a time. (limited, and dwindling market)
Your product had a limited shelf-life. (Women see it this way!)
Fierce Competition with 50% + of the Earth's population.
You get my point here, I'm sure. And if you don't then, my point is that as professional marketers, we'd run in the opposite direction. (I would anyway) This is WAY too difficult. It's a WORSE situation than trying to sell ice to Eskimos. Everything is stacked against us from the git-go as marketers. I suppose you could say in some situations, there are "desperate buyers" but let's not go there. Yet this is what women have had to do through out the ages. Since time began. And many do it without thinking, natural, organic, marketing. It's not even called or thought about as "marketing."
The lesson here (I think) is no matter what the product is, it can be successfully marketed.
How?
Relationship building. It starts with a non-threatening introduction. It builds into "interest." It presents a problem. (Sound familiar yet?) It solves a problem. It increasingly uses emotions, and "hot-buttons." (No pun intended) It uses/relies on testimonials. It culminates in a call to action or "buy."
Even in a saturated, crowded marketplace, some products stand out. When you think about it, this has got to be the longest running, all time greatest marketing plan in the history of the world. Going on everyday, right beneath our noses, yet I never realized it. (My wife pointed this out to me.)
So I got to thinking...who else tapped into this idea?
Other examples are movies. They say there are only 4 original story lines, (Love, hate, greed, revenge) and all books, plays, movies are offspring of those 4 original story lines. Yet, we line up religiously, to buy into whatever the movie/book of the week/month is. Even though we have seen the same story in countless variations, many times before.
Movies use many of the same techniques, but have less time to "Work Magic." (Think of a movie trailer) But an actor/actress builds a relationship with their audience, they create interest/controversy about themselves, and about their roles, the have problems, they solve their problems, they use emotions, it has a call to action.
Obviously, these are two, time tested, successful marketing vehicles.
What lessons can we draw? Or better, what can we learn, and use to our advantage? Are there other examples (There must be) we can draw on? Can we expand on these principles in IM, the way Hollywood did for movies?
Think about it. Women have been marketing themselves (mostly for survival) throughout history. (Men have been too...but not in the same way, or at the extreme that women had to.) I'm not trying to be sexist, I'm trying to make a point. Consider...
What if we all had to market...
The same product. (I'm sure lots of women will disagree here)
Every product had the same "benefits" (Packaged differently for sure, but we won't go into that.)
There were more products than buyers. (Talk about market saturation!)
A buyer could only have one product at a time. (limited, and dwindling market)
Your product had a limited shelf-life. (Women see it this way!)
Fierce Competition with 50% + of the Earth's population.
You get my point here, I'm sure. And if you don't then, my point is that as professional marketers, we'd run in the opposite direction. (I would anyway) This is WAY too difficult. It's a WORSE situation than trying to sell ice to Eskimos. Everything is stacked against us from the git-go as marketers. I suppose you could say in some situations, there are "desperate buyers" but let's not go there. Yet this is what women have had to do through out the ages. Since time began. And many do it without thinking, natural, organic, marketing. It's not even called or thought about as "marketing."
The lesson here (I think) is no matter what the product is, it can be successfully marketed.
How?
Relationship building. It starts with a non-threatening introduction. It builds into "interest." It presents a problem. (Sound familiar yet?) It solves a problem. It increasingly uses emotions, and "hot-buttons." (No pun intended) It uses/relies on testimonials. It culminates in a call to action or "buy."
Even in a saturated, crowded marketplace, some products stand out. When you think about it, this has got to be the longest running, all time greatest marketing plan in the history of the world. Going on everyday, right beneath our noses, yet I never realized it. (My wife pointed this out to me.)
So I got to thinking...who else tapped into this idea?
Other examples are movies. They say there are only 4 original story lines, (Love, hate, greed, revenge) and all books, plays, movies are offspring of those 4 original story lines. Yet, we line up religiously, to buy into whatever the movie/book of the week/month is. Even though we have seen the same story in countless variations, many times before.
Movies use many of the same techniques, but have less time to "Work Magic." (Think of a movie trailer) But an actor/actress builds a relationship with their audience, they create interest/controversy about themselves, and about their roles, the have problems, they solve their problems, they use emotions, it has a call to action.
Obviously, these are two, time tested, successful marketing vehicles.
What lessons can we draw? Or better, what can we learn, and use to our advantage? Are there other examples (There must be) we can draw on? Can we expand on these principles in IM, the way Hollywood did for movies?
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