For anyone getting involved with sales of any kind these days, the word marketing soon crops up.   It used to be the word sales.   Then a perception developed that anyone in ‘sales’ was a bit low life and not to be trusted.   They were sort of looked down upon.  “Oh he’s just a salesman” was often the descriptive terminology used.  People in the business of selling had to put up with this image lowering phraseology for years.

However, as mankind evolved, sales talk also evolved.  You only have to compare the ‘politically correct’ language of today, compared to only ten years ago, to see how language and perceptions develop.  The male chauvinistic to feminist era before that also very slyly changed not only language, it changed whole trains of thought.

So salesmen, being salesmen, gradually managed to alter ways of thinking about their profession by declaring that they were not salesmen but marketers.  A word with much nicer feel to it.  Markets were those places where those lovable rouges gathered to share a joke or two and you bought their wares.  They didn’t sell you anything.  Much friendlier than salesmen trying to push their wares on to you.

Marketing was a much classier place to be employed.

I know that there are those that still firmly insist that marketing and sales are two different professions that compliment each other.  Marketing is what happens so that salesmen can do their job they claim.

Really?

So how come, without exception, all Internet marketers have ‘sales’ pages? Even affiliates, who claim they are true marketers as they don’t sell their own product, are selling the sales pages of those who do have products to sell.

So what is marketing?

Marketing done properly, it is claimed, is the distribution of information about products or services to enable a potential customer to have enough knowledge to make a purchasing decision.  I suppose in a way that is true.  However, all the information given is usually with a heavy onesided bias in favour of the product being sold.

Therefore, I would suggest that marketing is actually conditioning.   We get conditioned by marketers to believe that the product or service they are giving their information about, really is essential for us to lead our lives.

If you really want to see conditioning like this at work go into any school of seven to nine year olds and you will, almost certainly, find the latest fad going around affects most pupils in that school.  At the moment it’s a toy called “Funny Bones”.  It’s been pet pebbles, little plastic football collectables, certain types of dolls, and going back in time it has been tea cards and marbles. Because of the toy manufacturers marketing, children are conditioned to the point where peer pressure takes over.

The same happens with adults.

We are conditioned in all sorts of ways by all types of marketing.  The Internet, television, radio and newspapers all carry heavy sales messages under the fashionable name of marketing. Even the news, in all it’s delivered forms, is conditioning us not only by the pictures they show but by the tone of voice and words used.

We were once shocked hearing about a 10 mile traffic jam.  We’ve now heard it so much we hardly notice they’re telling us about it these days. Unless we are in it of course. What you may not realise is that a 10 mile jam in the sixties, virtually unheard of, really was 10 miles of two way traffic.  Same traffic jam today usually occurs on a three lane motorway so it’s 10 miles times three lanes.  A 30 mile jam in reality.  Don’t worry though.  We’re conditioned to it.

My favourite all time bit of salesmanship, sorry marketing, came from the guy who managed to pull off the biggest sales boost of all time. He actually doubled the sales of all hair shampoo by adding one phrase to the sales copy.

It worked so well that all other manufacturers followed suit.

The phrase was also added to the instructions on the bottle.  And today, nearly everybody believes this bit of marketing.

What was the phrase?

“Rinse and repeat“.

Conditioner anyone?