SubscribeEmotional Selling on Weightloss
This blog was written on April 13th, 2008
Companies that help consumers achieve ideal lifestyles have really taken advantage of emotional selling to compel consumers to use their products/services. Two categories I feel really take emotional selling to the next level (sometimes unethical) are Weight Loss and Match Making.
These categories are close to heart for most consumers and marketers realize this. To paint a better picture, I’ll use real life examples. This blog will focus on weight loss campaigns.
Media portrays happy people as being super model thin. A size 4 or 6 is no longer skinny and a size 2 is close but not good enough, but size 0 is healthy. Marketing campaigns for liposuction, weight loss programs, diets, gyms, any product/service that helps people look thinner/ lose weight will make people feel inferior and inadequate as a motivator to use the product/service advertised to get rid of this feeling. They give consumers hope that by trying this new diet, they will finally be happy and thin.
My real life example: I was at the Head to Toe Women’s Expo this weekend. A personal trainer at one of the booths told me he’d test my body fat. Being that I’m health concise, I figured why not? After he measured my body fat he categorized me. The first category was FIT. The second category was HEALTHY. The third category was AVERAGE. He told me I was AVERAGE! For goodness sakes! I work out 5+ times a week, eat (fairly) healthy, am a size 2 and according to this personal trainer who was trying to sell me on his service I’m AVERAGE and need some work to reach HEALTHY and FIT. For a second, he really made me feel inadequate and self conscious about my extremely healthy lifestyle! I started thinking of what I else I could do to reach this HEALTHY level. When consumers start thinking like this way, they will spend money on any product or service that many help the reach their ideal.
Talk about emotional selling! People just want to look good and feel good about themselves. People want to feel loved and accepted for their body image. When a company goes as fas as to make you believe you need to change something about your lifestyle, not just to be happy, but healthy, they really delve into your intrinsic desires. The result of this is usually a successful emotional marketing campaign because consumers will shell out the cash!
How to Market Yourself Via Your Resume
This blog was written on March 31st, 2008.
Many of my friends and people I’ve recently met are currently job searching. I’ve had people ask me for advice on resumes, interviewing and ultimately landing the perfect job (I don’t have the million dollar answer, but I do have some tips!) When applying for a job, your number one priority is to sell your prospective employer on why you are the best candidate among hundreds, even thousands of applicants. This is a pretty hard sell!
I’ll start with the ever so necessary tool, the Resumé. Every employer asks for one but the average resumé doesn’t receive more than 10-15 seconds of attention. So this is why it’s crucial to make yours stand out. Most of my tips will sound so simple yet I guarantee over 95% of the applicants for your job are not doing this– hence the reason their resumé will get less than 15 seconds of attention and yours will be read in detail.
1. Get name of the decision maker and find a way to get your resumé directly into their hands. Most employers require you to submit an online application to a generic human resources email. Hundreds of people are doing this. While you must also do this, write a cover letter to the decision maker stating how you already submitted an online application but to make it more efficient for Miss/Mr. Employer and to save them the trouble of having to fish through hundreds of emails to find yours (since you understand how busy they are) you thought you’d be proactive and also deliver your resume directly. I would either hand deliver it to the receptionist in a sealed envelop with their name (make them open it to find out what it is) or I would send via snail mail with some sort of express mail envelop that makes it look urgent– again Miss/ Mr. Employer will have to open it.
2. Make sure your resumé is printed on resumé paper! Most people if submitting a hard copy resumé will print it on a regular sheet of printer paper. This will not stand out in a pile of hundreds. Resumé paper will stand out in the pile because it is thicker, a slightly different color and it looks more professional.
3. Keep your resumé to one page of paper. Please note this doesn’t mean you can’t have a two page resumé. Of course you can have two pages to sell yourself but instead of stapling on a second page that can easily get torn off, make your resume front/back sided so it’s only one sheet of paper. Indicate on the bottom of the first page (Page 1 of 2 Please See Reverse Side) so the person reading knows there’s more in the back.
Myspace, Your Space, OUR SPACE
This blog was written on March 27th, 2008
This post is inspired by an event I attended today titled My Space vs. Your Space. The focus was on managing your business’s online persona while building capital. I gained tremendous insight on the benefits of Social Media Marketing.
As a forward thinking Marketer, I’m always seeking ways to keep my clients ahead of the game. In any campaign, FREQUENCY, FREQUENCY, FREQUENCY in multiple medias is a key element in getting consumers familiar with your brand. Social Media Marketing plays such a vital role in increasing frequency because you reach out to people in a space they already embrace. I believe it’s definitely not a substitute for having a website or other forms of marketing but it’s a powerful way to enhance an existing campaign.
I still remember 5? 6? years ago when I was hanging out with friends one evening and a couple of them kept raving about this phenomena called Friendster. I ignored their request to sign up thinking who would waste their time on a site like that? Wow a lot has changed since then! As I left the event I made a note to take a few minutes before the week is over to update all of my Social Media Sites. I even signed up for SocialURL which made me realize there are so many Social Media Marketing opportunities I still have to explore. Another item on my to-do list: Sign up for more Social Media Networks! because the web MY space to market myself. Wait I mean it’s YOUR space. Alright, let’s just say it’s OUR space that’s unique to each individual.
