The Two Most Effective Marketing Tricks In History!

May 19, 2009 in Fistful Thinking By Drifter & Keem by Chef Keem

Spreading fear.
Lying

A gadzillion-moolah success strategy that has worked for ages…

Cave men swung clubs
Crusaders yielded swords
Clerics burned “witches”
Nazis gassed Jews
Governments utilized terrorist acts for their agenda
Marketers predicted doom

Fear.

They invoked higher authorities, patriotism, righteousness, data…

Lies. (We bought them all.)

They told us – “Jesus died for your sins and we’ll have to kill you if you don’t follow us!” (Last time I checked, Jesus rose from the grave to eliminate fear for all mankind.)

They told us, something is out to get us…however, complete surrender of spirit and rights will guarantee our safety. Ka-ching!

Meanwhile, the brain-washers use highly sophisticated tools…irrational fears are firmly implanted in our genes!

Marketers know that and give us the choice:

a) Pain, misery, and a living environment in brown-tones, or…
b) CELEMORONOXITIN (only $475 per month), plus: golfing, boating, running with grand kids, joyful family gatherings, daily health and happiness…things we want so badly that we even ignore the little side effects of liver and kidney damage, stroke, seizures, etc… (Hey, the first month is free!)

a) Pimples, social outcast, rejection, loneliness, or…
b) CLARIFOOL (only $49/month with 3-year commitment), plus: instant “Perfect 10”, hunk, babe, deliriously happy relationships…

Commercials come packaged with programming designed to make us feel emotionally vulnerable. Movies draw us in – right where the ads want us to be.

Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

We don’t really have a choice anymore. We watch it, live it, breathe it, believe it…we’re used to it, and worse – we use it.

Our pitch pages say -

Do you really want to waste your time by working without my product?
Do you really want to keep worrying about your bills?
You’ll never get anywhere without my expertise!
Do you want to miss out on this chance of a lifetime?

Can you feel the fear?

And then we lie -

You’ll make the cost of this course back within the first week! (How can we possibly know this ahead of time?)
You might not make millions but how does $4k per month sound to you? (Very slick!)
Your life will change forever! (Probably true – we evolve.)

A Different Kind Of Marketing Thinking

Bear with me, PotPieGirl and a few other generous souls. I’m not talking about you. And I’m certainly not above the seduction of financial success! I just would like to begin to think differently…recognize and let go of my fears. I hate the feeling of doubt when I leave another pitch page with glorious promises: maybe I should have bought this one?

Naomi Dunford, top internet marketer of IttyBiz.com fame, wrote the following (excerpt) in an email to me:

…don’t ever feel pressured to buy. It makes me insanely sick when I see the pressure people put on readers to become customers. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You hang out and listen to the free stuff and learn and then maybe some day down the road you’ll buy something and maybe you won’t, but either way, we can still be friends.

No fear, only sharing. And as a consequence – no lying necessary, either. She’ll be the first one I’ll buy from when I can.

Thing is, people pay less and less attention to market criers. Seth & Co. have changed our paradigms.

Let’s take a good look at our irrational fears – as marketers or as customers.

Any ideas?

(Image courtesy of rofltosh. Thank you.)

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