Marketing To Sinners
What people say can often be miles apart from what people do. We are hypocrites in one way or the other. There is the ‘ideal’ and there is the practiced and never the twain shall meet in this life.
So who is you marketing targeted to? Do you really know your target market? Are you picturing them how you want them to be? How you wished them to be? Or how they really are?
Let me explain.
I often wish that people would know anything that is worth getting is worth exerting some effort to gain. But often what sells is the “get rich quick by doing nothing” products.
I wish that people would want to buy integrity but no they prefer success.
I wish that people would be more self-disciplined but they are more self-indulgent instead.
I wish that people were more self-reliant but no they prefer dependence.
You see, all the ‘ideals’ I may have in my head about my target can be very far from the truth. You’d be surprised to know that surveys show that while people SAY they will prefer to hear more positive stories on the news rather than all the disaster, crime, war and economic downturn, ratings are higher for the ‘bad’ news than the ‘good’ news.
I told you what people say don’t generally match what they do!
I once read how the audience of the Howard Stern show, known for its un-sacredness, consists of twice as many listeners who HATE the show as who love the show. When asked why they listen if they hated the show these people commented that they didn’t want to miss the outrageous thing Howard would say next!
Perhaps you’ll be surprised to know of the millions of ‘closet readers’ of the gossip and tabloid magazines—there’s just no other way to explain their wide circulation. Most people who read the tabloids would want people to THINK that they read the ‘respectable’ magazines instead.
As the copywriter and marketer if you don’t consider these trends when you are framing your appeal then you are missing the boat.
I’ve often read many complaints from product owners who are simply frustrated that their products are not selling when their products “do A,B,C,D”. They know their products provide value to their markets but they are not selling to prospects but to themselves. Read that again. As a product owner you can end up selling the product to yourself because you are not considering the REAL prospect but how you want the prospect to be—just like you!
How much are you really in touch with ‘people”? I mean real breathing, living people because these are the people who would buy your products and services. Do you have an ideal picture that is far removed from reality?
Although you may not want to admit it, people are lazy, want easy success, ostentatious, lack integrity, make quick decisions, dependent, restless and ostentatious. This may not be the way you WANT them to be, but this is the reality you have to deal with.
Discuss ‘people’ and most people would not want to be classed as such but it’s the human story, and the quicker you learn this fact as a marketer the better it will be for you.
Often I have seen products of lesser value than mines being sold for higher prices and I’m often left dumbfounded. But when I investigated the matter further I realize that I have too high a view of people. My wife often complain that I am too naïve and people will easily walk over me. But my nature is to see the best in every man. I often see people as I want them to be, instead of what they are. This may be a great trait to have in another field, but in marketing it lead to your demise.
Because the quicker you can understand human nature for what it IS instead of what you WANT it to be, the quicker you’ll be able to reach people. It’s simple: in order to take people where you want them to go you must understand the journey they are already on.
Why do people always fall for SCAMS and conmen? Because these thieves sell to human nature and not what they idealize their victims to be. These scumbags understand human nature and sell to human nature, not to sinless angels.
So, what about you? Are you marketing to sinners or to saints?
