That guy never left. The a-hole did.
Nice try though…
I see…
The truth is, everyone and everything can be reached by effective marketing.
Look at all the nonsensical buying decisions made everyday, thanks to it’s power.
[INDENT]
You could sell $25,000 pens to a blind man, if done right.
You could sell $100/hr fake tans to someone who lives in sun-drenched California.
You could sell $400,000 Bentleys to rich kids not even old enough to drive.
You could sell $6,000,000,000 (yes, billion) of bottled tap water every year.
You could also successfully and profitably sell ice to Eskimo’s. (I am not joking. I truly am not.)
Us human-folk are far from sane creatures. We make all kinds of crazy, emotional, irrational buying decisions everyday. As marketers, we can engineer messages to speak to this irrational human. But this engineering process is far from intuitive, and often requires exercises to open up our minds to think beyond the obvious and easy.[/INDENT]
Starting with near-impossible odds can be very good brain fuel to get these creative juices flowing. Sometimes such extreme examples can open up trains of thought that are normally dismissed.
But you have the right to sit this game out, until one more to your liking comes along.
And to clarify, I am always surprised - and a little annoyed - by any carte-blanche dismissal of a valuable teaching exercise. I think it’s closed-minded and damaging to your own creativity.
Thus my extensive efforts to encourage you to reevaluate whether or not you want to play this game.
Anyway, I’ve already said enough.
I’m sure you “get my drift”.
This also made me smile. [sigh]
THESE GUYS have nerve, when it comes to charging through the nose for ummm…
Ice.
$8 per ice-cube in fact.
What percentage of nonsensical buying decisions are made irrespective of engineered marketing messages?
Let me just say this. I have been challenged my entire time
on WCR and NWCD. I am always hearing “prove it”. I have people
telling me I am out of my mind… it’s happened a million times.
My ads have now grossed over $500,000 in sales and here I still am…
You seem to be under the assumption you are beyond questioning. Like
what you say is law.
I am not attacking you at all in this thread, I am questioning your
poor examples. Your new examples even surprise me more, so I will
quickly dispatch them.
[B]You could sell $25,000 pens to a blind man, if done right.[/B]
Who sells $25,000 pens to blind people? How many blind people
bought one? How much would you invest to start this business?
[B]You could sell $100/hr fake tans to someone who lives in sun-drenched California.[/B]
Yeah, that’s just like selling ice to Eskimos…
[B]You could sell $400,000 Bentleys to rich kids not even old enough to drive.[/B]
No you can sell it to ego crazed [U]rich[/U] parents. $400,000 likely is not the same
to them as it is to us.
You could sell $6,000,000,000 (yes, billion) of bottled tap water every year.
I could sell it? Try that is the industry, not a company. Try starting this business
and let me know how it goes.
[B]You could also successfully and profitably sell ice to Eskimo’s. (I am not joking. I truly am not.)[/B]
Show me how- you have not given one good example. Maybe you
should get a little more creative. Why are your examples so bad?
You had no problem creating some ad to compete with me, but
you can’t even handle this simple Q & A with me.
It is VERY easy to brainstorm ideas that will NEVER be used and/or proven
effective.
I am curious as to why you would pick a subject that is not realistic. I
guess maybe it’s because you can’t be proved wrong.
Why not show these people how REAL LIFE marketing is done. Creative
does not sell and if you don’t believe me, head up to Alaska with your
Noah’s Ark of ice sculptures and sell some.
Please feel free to challenge anything I say too. I promise you I will not
be offended. If we are not challenged we become delusional and lazy.
They are selling it to Eskimos right?
If not, please realize you are leaving out the key ingredient
to selling anything to anyone… the customer.
What’s next “how do we sell a fake tan to Africans?”
Where you will point out how people in Cali do it so it can be done 
Paul you stated that you were going to ‘dispatch’ Kevin’s examples, but I did not see any dispatching, only questioning. You did not prove his examples in error, you only brought question to them. But to me the most confusing aspect of your post was you first questioned his California fake tan, then you seemed to agree that that illustration was valid, when you brought up the African fake tan.
By the way when I googled ‘tanning salon in San Diego’ there came back 847,000 sites. Sorry I did not check out their prices to see how many were charging $100/hr. I didn’t have the spare time.
Scot, you’re not seeing it and I have explained it out too much
already. Most people could care less about this entire
conversation so why keep at it.
Just keep in mind the customer and their wants/needs. Don’t force
a square peg into a round hole.
Perhaps I should have just said that and shut my mouth…
Good question.
I don’t know.
I think the crazier and sillier and more irrational the product/service, the more marketing is needed.
I wonder how many bottles of water would be sold if they just said “This is tap water.” Probably a very small percentage. VERY small.
It’s hard to say when we are truly acting apart from engineered messages, too. We are conditioned so intensely and frequently that it’s very hard to differentiate when we are making our “own” buying decisions, anymore.
Great question, Larry.
Maybe the answer then, is never. I really don’t know.
[quote=Paul McQuillan;69480
[B]You could sell $100/hr fake tans to someone who lives in sun-drenched California.[/B]
Yeah, that’s just like selling ice to Eskimos…
[/quote]
Clearly you have never been to Southern California. This happens all day every day, there are like 4 tanning places within a 3 minute drive from my house. And they do cost this much, too. 20 bucks for 20 minutes equals $100/hour.
You should see how busy these places are… [B]in San Diego[/B]… in the summer even.
Oh and 20 bucks for 20 minutes ($100/hour) is actually pretty standard. (I know because I even clean windows at one of them)
Also Paul, if you are SO concerned about helping REAL people,there are over 3,000 REAL people you could help here.
Kevin helps the 3,000 of us everyday.
You come on here occasionally, tell people there marketing material is crap, and give VERY LITTLER (I didn’t say none) advice on how to improve their stuff.
Dude, have you ever stopped to think, they probably already [B]KNOW[/B] that it needs work??? Thats probably why they posted it on here asking for advice on how to make it better.
I don’t feel that way, no. Questioning is good.
And I think you’ve told us 300 times that your ads grossed over $500,000. That’s pretty cool. We know.
A nice track record doesn’t make weak reasoning any stronger.
Tiger Woods won eight championships and then decided to work on his swing, because it had weaknesses.
I am not attacking you at all in this thread, I am questioning your
poor examples. Your new examples even surprise me more, so I will
quickly dispatch them.
You could sell $25,000 pens to a blind man, if done right.
Who sells $25,000 pens to blind people? How many blind people
bought one? How much would you invest to start this business?
I’m just going to cut-and-paste this reply from now on:
This is not a “what business should you be in?” thread. It is a how-to marketing thread.
You could sell $100/hr fake tans to someone who lives in sun-drenched California.
Yeah, that’s just like selling ice to Eskimos…
Not a far cry. Think about it.
You could sell $400,000 Bentleys to rich kids not even old enough to drive.
No you can sell it to ego crazed rich parents. $400,000 likely is not the same to them as it is to us.
Kids affect parental buying decisions, including vehicles. Especially with the uber-rich. Ever seen the TV show “Sweet Sixteen” with the spoiled rotten rich kids pushing their daddies to buy insanely expensive cars before they even have their license?
Therefore, you sell the kids on the car, and they make Daddy open his wallet.
You could sell $6,000,000,000 (yes, billion) of bottled tap water every year.
I could sell it? Try that is the industry, not a company. Try starting this business and let me know how it goes.
This is not a “what business should you be in?” thread. It is a how-to marketing thread.
You could also successfully and profitably sell ice to Eskimo’s. (I am not joking. I truly am not.)
Show me how- you have not given one good example. Maybe you
should get a little more creative. Why are your examples so bad?
Please teach me, then, Paul. Share with my one of your examples.
Again - even one would be nice, and add to the value of this thread.
I did not write a 25-page marketing thesis on the subject. I am simply trying to start a conversation that has practical value, in terms of marketing principles and lessons learned.
I actually recorded a video much longer, too, but youtube only allows 10 minutes so I was forced to rerecord a very brief one.
You had no problem creating some ad to compete with me, but
you can’t even handle this simple Q & A with me.
It is VERY easy to brainstorm ideas that will NEVER be used and/or proven
effective.
Good! Let’s hear one from the McQuillan Mind. I’m sure it’ll be great, and especially because you find it so easy!
How about one? Please?
Join the conversation, since you don’t seem to be dismissing it entirely, and in fact, find it refreshingly easy.
I am curious as to why you would pick a subject that is not realistic. I
guess maybe it’s because you can’t be proved wrong.
Because it’s a famous idiom, and I am using it as an exercise. I thought I said that already.
Why not show these people how REAL LIFE marketing is done. Creative does not sell and if you don’t believe me, head up to Alaska with your Noah’s Ark of ice sculptures and sell some.
Please feel free to challenge anything I say too. I promise you I will not
be offended. If we are not challenged we become delusional and lazy.
So you are helping me avoid being delusional and lazy?
Thanks.
I’m tired of trying to convince you that this game is a game.
The question was not “Should you start an ice-selling business in Alaska?”, it was “How would you sell ice to an Eskimo?”
It is an English idiom that I would suggest almost everyone has heard and repeated, but in reality, have given less than a passing thought to.
As far as “real-life scenarios”, please feel free to start a new thread with an imaginary window cleaning business, or get specific, get your hands dirty (as you say you are anxious to), and make something for just ONE of the 100 requests for specific feedback that are heard here on WCR.
Since you are dying to get “real” and “specific” and to “stop playing pointless games”, why not roll up your sleeves and make something or lead someone through this process starting today, right now?
And don’t tell simply them how poor their concept is, or how badly it is need of overhaul, show them how to achieve these results you are speaking of.
Your choice:
Imagemakers flier (although you said “you don’t feel like it”, but now you seem to)
Or Cudog’s mini-golf dilemma (he’s already committed, so don’t bash him for saying it’s a bad idea, help him make the most of it)
Either way, please try to see this thread for what it is: an exercise.
But as I said, you can start a new, real-life conversation, anytime you wish. Just please start a new thread to do it on.
[INDENT][B]Actually - you know what - don’t even bother with any of this. It’s not my place to tell you what to do. You’re a big boy. Do what you want.
You are entitled to your opinion, and my opinion is simply mine, no more, no less.
I don’t even know why I wrote this silly long post.[/B][/INDENT]
Umm…isn’t that $60/hr?
Duh… I feel dumb, :o
Still though, thats for the tanning bed.
the spray on tan costs even more. maybe even $100/hour, I’m not sure though.
I’ll still be your friend.
So why would anyone boast of being able to sell ice to an Eskimo? The Eskimo clearly doesn’t have a need for ice. He will certainly experience buyer’s remorse when reality sets in. And in addition to losing his future business, you’ll probably annoy the Eskimo.
That being said I still think this is a great exercise in marketing. It get’s one to think in terms of asking the right questions. Too easily we are so ready to dismiss an area because we believe that neighborhood is unreachable.
Or getting down because you spend to much time worrying about the economy and less and less time asking the right questions like “what marketing message can I send to my customers that will get my phone to ring?”
Back to the exercise at hand. I like colorized igloos. With special die you can create an igloo with multiple colors that fit your pagophile’s taste. 
Now I just have to create a marketing message and flier…
Great parallel analogies.
Interestingly, people don’t usually buy what they need. They buy what they want…
Primarily, that is.
I definitely did not need to buy a coffee from the coffee shop this morning, I could have made it at home. But I wanted to just buy one. it was easier, faster, and made me feel warm and coddled.
I did not need to buy a big truck, I could have bought a 5-yr-old used little one. But I wanted to buy a big, brash one to capture more attention, and it was fun to buy a brand-new vehicle at least once, and see the odometer start at zero.
And an Eskimo certainly does not need ice from us. That might not necessarily prevent him from enjoying the transaction experience, though, and being delighted with his purchase.
/
I’m thinkin’ “free cooler with every purchase of $50.00 or more” ?
Why is everybody assuming the Eskimo has ice already? Eskimo is a nationality, maybe he moved to Florida and misses his igloo, sell that man some ice! Maybe Al Gore frightened him with some mickey mouse theory about global warming and he feels a need to stock up now.
[B]The first lesson is never assume that your prospect doesn’t need what your selling. [/B]
