Marketing

When I think of marketing, I think of hog markets. I think of a bunch of pigs in a pen, snorting and grunting, herded together as they prepare to become a chop or steak or burger. “To market, to market, to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, jiggety jig.”

The world is a market. Ideas, methods, pencils, thumbtacks, hair, eyeballs, mice, grass (you pick the kind), wind, air…just about everything is “sellable,” a commodity of some kind – or becomes a part of something that people buy and sell.

There are some things that I don’t think are commodities. Like ear wax. Toenails. Dust. Some weeds. Fog. Leg hair. Why, even they are the inspiration for a related commodity. Ear wax drops. Clippers. Vacuum sweepers. Roundup. Lights.

I know what you’re going to say now: “Mary Jo, for heaven’s sake, get a life!”

I’m really going somewhere with this, I promise!

I get lots of marketing emails (spam) in one of my Yahoo mail accounts. I’ve closed down at least one email account because of too much spam. I read some of the spam emails, however, and many are a result of something I’ve subscribed to or expressed an interest in. What I notice about so many is this trend: they go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on

STOP!

about their product for paragraph after paragraph as if the reader was going to take the time to process the original intent: “Buy my product,” said in 45 different ways, in 15 paragraphs, leading you to a website that displays a video (that automatically starts up) that gives you 25 reasons why you should check out the 54 more reasons on the web page that tell you, in 20 paragraphs, why you need to subscribe to their newsletter, which further gives you 95 reasons why you want to return to the website that will give you 28 more reasons why you will DIE if you don’t purchase their program for only…

This feels familiar. I think I’ve talked about this before.

I guess it’s something I notice, and instead of pressing the “delete” button, which would probably save me a lot of time, I sometimes take a look, and I read about how you can find out about the thing that they are going to tell you about when they get done telling you about how you can learn about the thing they are going to tell you about when they finally get done telling you about how you can get that thing for only …

It wouldn’t bother me as much, perhaps, if only a few did it, but almost all of them do.

They have all climbed upon the marketing bandwagon that I call “cliffhanger marketing.”

And then it makes me wonder if there’s anything at the bottom if I happen to jump off the cliff.

There’s no such thing as a sample. “Just give me a test run of your product.” Oh, wait! That’s what the cliffhangers are, the alleged “test runs,” the samples. The samples lead you to the edge of the cliff where you hang.

I guess that’s mostly true in the world of ideas. If you share your entire idea, you make nothing. If you give people a teaser, they’ll want more.

So tell me about it, give me a little sample, and then LET ME DECIDE without all the cliffhangers!

Life is a cliffhanger, by all means. We get a sample of something, we try, decide we like it or we don’t, and then go on and try something else.

And to be honest, most of the stuff I do try, if I have really waded through all the cliffhangers and actually jumped, aren’t as awesome or wonderful as they have been advertised to be. Not that they aren’t life-changing for someone else.

The most life-changing stuff I’ve found to date has been unequivocably inexpensive, or even free.

Not that everything has been dirt cheap, but relatively speaking, the things that have really worked, have been just pretty darned good deals.

It could be that those who promote the less-expensive ones know that they have something that really is life-changing, and they would rather help people change lives, than make lots of money. They believe that the satisfaction and joy that comes from hearing great things from people who’ve been inspired by the product or service is far greater than the money.

And the money that comes because so many appreciate it is good, too.

No, I do not believe in selling one’s service or product short. Dirt cheap can sometimes mean inferior. But not always.

There’s a balance. Saying that what I have to offer is worth something, for the knowledge that I’ve gained. But there’s also the gift of appreciation for what I have gained and what I want to share with others.

Overall, though, it’s a matter of discernment and choice. It all comes down to what really works. And after many emails promoting newsletters that promote websites that promote videos that promote more videos that promote a teaser product that promotes an even bigger commitment to an even more extensive and expensive product that I don’t want to live without…I now appreciate those who offer what they offer and trust that I am smart and wise enough to decide whether or not I want to buy.

That’s not a hog market at all.

Desperation does not entice me. Confidence and brevity does. Sell the darned product, trust me, and leave me alone. Thank you very much.