the power of marketing

The Boston Tea Party And The Power Of Marketing

Most of us know
the Boston Tea Party
was a protest against
England’s taxes on tea
in the (now) USA.

What I didn’t know
until recently
was
it was a protest
against England
LOWERING the tea taxes.

That brought the price
of legal tea
closer to the price
of smuggled tea
and
the wealthy tea smugglers
(like John Hancock
and Samuel Adams)
didn’t like that.

So they staged
a protest,
marketed it
as being an act
of freedom and liberty.

And it was extremely successful,
so successful
that hundreds of years later,
we STILL believe the marketing.

When someone tells you
marketing doesn’t work,
ask them
if the Boston Tea Party
was a protest
against
increased
or
decreased taxes.

Marketing works.

They Won’t ‘Eventually’ Notice

Keep putting out great products
and someone will eventually notice.

Older business gurus offer
this advice
ALL the time.

It is wrong,
so very wrong.

Look at this blog
– client k.
I’ve posted every day
here
for a couple decades.

My readership is tiny.
And it isn’t growing.

There’s a LOT
of sh*t on the internet.
It is highly unlikely
someone will ‘discover’ this blog.

If I cared about
the size of my readership
(I don’t),
I should promote
this blog
– constantly.

I would definitely
have to do some things,
perhaps many things
differently.

If your products/services
have too small of a customer base
for you,
you have to do something
different
also.

No one is going to
‘discover’ you.

You have to bring
yourself, your business,
your products/services
to prospective customers.

Dandelions And Marketing

In my area of the world,
dandelions are considered weeds.
They are perceived
as ‘bad’ plants.

Every part of a dandelion
from the flowers to the roots
is edible.

Dandelions feed the bees.
They are often
the first flowers to appear.

They’re drought tolerant,
don’t need much water
in this water-shortage world.

They have taproots
that help aerate
and fertilize the soil.

And they grow in all types
of soil
from sand to clay.

There is no reason
that dandelions
should be considered undesirable.

Yet the lawn and grass companies
have convinced us,
through persistent marketing,
that dandelions are weeds,
that we should remove them
from our yards.

Think of the dandelions
when someone claims
marketing has no impact
on people’s perceptions.

Marketing DOES work.