Does race or nationality matter? Honest opinion please...

You make that sound like a bad thing, but THAT'S your ace in the hole!

Who cares about anything else? You have personal pics of yourself. Play up that angle.

"While you may be used to seeing supermodels in these types of pictures, I thought it would be better to share my personal results and pictures."

Seriously, I wouldn't care how you looked, nationality, or attractiveness. If I wanted to lose weight, I would be focused on the areas of your body that used to be flabby.

When you have a unique position like yours, go for it! Race doesn't matter in this case.

All the best,
Michael

I'm picturing a great sales pages starting off with:

What Does This Crazy Asian Man Know About Weight Loss?
You Will Never Guess

Your "disadvantage" can just as easily be an advantage when properly framed.

This is an important question.

While racism may be driving the underlying factors influencing consumer purchase (and let's face it, it most likely is), the decision on the part of the marketer to leverage race is purely practical, and I don't think there should be any stigma attached to addressing this issue.

Years ago, I was the marketing coordinator for the now-defunct DreamWorks Interactive, a company that made video games. One thing I learned about marketing was that you should always market to the group with the highest-status within a given demographic; for example, if your game was aimed at 16-year-olds, but was suitable for 12-year olds, you wouldn't dare market to the 12-year-olds. The reason being that a 12-year old will play a game meant for an older kid, but an older kid wouldn't want a game that was apparently meant for a younger kid.

This works in all contexts. Another example: women will use a product aimed for men--men have higher status in society than women and there is little or no stigma, for me, if I use a product made for a man. In fact, there may well be a kind of cache in doing so because I'll look cool, or tough, or girl-powerful, or what have you. But, will a man use a product made for a woman?? Ha ha, not likely. So, in marketing a unisex product, you'd have to be careful not to slant too far towards the female end or you'd alienate potential men buyers.

This is not to say you want to be all things to all people and lose your product identity, but just to aim at the highest-status portion of whoever is legitimately your demographic.

So...addressing your asian/white question, I wouldn't necessarily assume that an asian would automatically buy from an asian and a white would automatically buy from a white. I have no opinion or assumption here, but, consider this: is the asian you are marketing to living in the U.S.? If so, they may unconsciously find a white face more credible, since whites in the U.S. have a higher status than minorities. And moreover, think about the skinny people they're trying to emulate: most likely, young, white female celebrities. And if you've got a celebrity endorsement from a caucasian, (hypothetically speaking) I would imagine that would trump any real-person asian endorsement.

On the other hand, just to make the point that this isn't something which can be oversimplified, consider a scenario where the fat loss product has to do with traditional herbs. In this case, maybe an asian face would be more credible to both asians AND whites, because of the association between herbs and traditional Chinese medicine. It would depend on the overall marketing strategy (e.g., are you marketing the product as an ancient, secret formula?)

None of this high status/low status thinking reflects my personal political beliefs, of course, and it can get quite disheartening to contemplate, for me at least. But reality is reality.

Personally, I would try to find a source with hard data on the subject, and fine tune your efforts as much as possible. Think about all the marketing research that companies do! These issues are complex, and of course race and ethnicity do matter.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any such sources, being new to internet marketing myself, but maybe someone else on the forum knows of a source that is not prohibitively expensive.

I'm a newbie on this forum. I hope the above is useful!

-Kathryn

Hey Flareman,


Interesting question. Firstly "Never judge a book by it's cover." Consider these.

Ok so as you mention, lets say that A & B are almost identical. Hmm, which one would I buy?

Well what about taking into consideration......price point, money back guarantee and shipping costs for starters.

Also, what if the Chinese woman was born and bred in the States and has enjoyed the American burgers and donuts all her life? Does her asian appearance make her any less knowledgeable about obesity and fat loss?. We aren't talking apples for oranges here. We're talking apples for apples. So would choosing to buy A rather than B or vice-versa be based on a smart investment or ignorance and vanity.

Let me take it away from the fat loss niche now. Lets say i'm a (white) newbie searching for someone who can teach me all about Affiliate marketing. A search in this forum reveals the name Ewen Chia - Super Affiliate and of asian appearance. Further searching leads me to a sales page of lets say John Doe of white appearance who claims to be a Super Affiliate also. But more searching reveals not much else about this John Doe as opposed to reviews, testimonials and warrior recommendations pro Ewen Chia. As a white person, do I go against my better judgement and choose John Doe because his skin color is the same as mine or do I invest in the "asian" who knows his stuff....its a no brainer don't you think?! Don't know about anyone else but I like to spend my money wisely and "don't determine the worth of something based on somebodys appearance".

Okay here's something to think about.

Don't know if those stats are quite correct as in total they add up kind weird, but for arguments sake, let's say they are. So only 12.8% are black and the rest are mixed.....how then, if most people stick to "their own" does the US come to have a Black President? When the majority of voters aren't black....???.....because the majority....white, black or otherwise elected him as the man to do the job.

True many people do have that mindset of sticking to their own, like Steven said "Stereotypes are going to exist until the end of time"...so true. IMHO that's only a small minority.

If you're in business and you find yourself in this situation, then you're preaching to the wrong audience, go for the bullseye...target that market. Whether it be demographics etc.

And if you still have that problem....then think in abundance. There's hundreds more people you can sell to. So what if person A won't buy from you because of race....there's always person B, C and D. So use your pictures "if "you want to...If you believe you have a great product that can solve their problems, yet they won't buy from you because of nothing else but your appearance....well then dang...it's their loss.

Yes, that was a rant and half...but hey you did ask for opinions


Cheers Marianne