Archive for August, 2009
The Snake Oil Syndrome
In the 1800s, when marketing was very personal and done at the local level, itinerant purveyors of goods would travel from town to town, holding product demonstrations with promises of wondrous benefits to be had by using their wares. Frequently the hype far exceeded the results and the term “snake oil salesmen” came to mean quacks and frauds. “Snake oil” came to represent anything sold through exaggerated marketing claims.
It is now two centuries later and the method of snake oil marketing is alive and well. It has just been transferred from small towns to the global community of the Web. The media has changed, but the promises of greater wealth, health and beauty remain. However, the snake oil salesman is much more elusive in this global media than the fast-talking salesman who fast-tracked it out of town when customers got rowdy.
For those who sell products and services without exaggerated promises there should be concern about some of the marketing being practiced on the Web. Disillusioned Web customers will Read more »
Nothing to Fear
Thomas Edison holds more than 3,000 patents. Many are for items we now take for granted such as electric lights. Edison was a man who achieved immense success. He was quick to acknowledge that success comes as the result of persistence. Edison himself claimed, “I have never failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.”
Discovering what doesn’t work is part of the process that leads to achievement. Fear of failure, however, often prevents people from taking the necessary risks and time to do the things that will ultimately lead to their fortune.
This is true in all disciplines, from scientific invention to marketing. In marketing, I have learned much from the successful campaigns I have worked on or created. I have learned even more from Read more »
The Irrational Consumer
There is a seduction scene in the Hitchcock movie North by Northwest with Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant. Exactly who is seducing who depends on your point of view. It is during this scene when Saint whispers to Grant that as an advertising man, he gets people to buy things they don’t really need and do things they shouldn’t do.
Although Saint states it a little strongly, the fact is that advertising is about persuasion. The more persuasive the message the better the advertising works.
To be really persuasive requires an understanding of how we manage our emotions. The only place for logic in great advertising is to justify the emotional decision that’s already been made.
Nowhere is this explained so well and in so many different Read more »
The Disappearing Act
It’s a sure thing that belts are being tightened at all income levels. Consumer and business spending is being carefully calculated, pondered and restrained. Only the government seems to be on a spending spree.
Perhaps the product segment where this is the most significant is in upscale brands and luxury products. Until the recent plunge, average American households were acquiring luxury brands. In fact, the “average” American home was a haven of luxury compared to the average standard of living one generation ago.
No longer content with 2-car garages, our homes needed space for 3 or 4 cars. Newly built McMansions had entrance halls larger than the living rooms of a generation past. Each member of the family required his or her own personal bathroom. It was this feeling that we were all entitled to the luxury lifestyle that Read more »
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