Victoria’s secret finally fixed their marketing image, moving from soft porn to beauty – good move. Glad they did that, as I walk past this store several times a week and I need to focus. Photo by FitOldDog.
Following a debate about religion, which I find fascinating and bizarre, these nice people, Ruth Ann and John, closed a deal with me – I finally bought a goat and two chickens for people in Africa. Now, is this true? Will the livestock arrive, I wonder? I’m always suspicious of such organizations. Successful marketing and sales, though. Photo by FitOldDog with permission.
If you want to run a successful business, you have to do your market research, in my case internet marketing, or so I’m told daily by blogs that I follow, and more recently at the Internet Summit.
One of my businesses is related to plantar fasciitis, so I research the condition from all angles, one of which is Internet search traffic. If you search on ‘Marketing’, you will see there are about 15,000 clicks on the topic per month, as shown at this link. This means people use this term to search for information that many times a month. If, however, you look under ‘Plantar Fasciitis,’ the number jumps to over 360,000 searches per month, as can be seen at this link. So, why not try ‘Victoria’s Secret,’ clearly a popular place for which I expected millions of clicks, but it generated only about 1,000 searches per month. Does this mean that people care more about plantar fasciitis than marketing or sexy clothes? I doubt it!
Think about it:
| Search Term | Number of clicks/month |
| Plantar Fasciitis | 360,000 |
| Marketing | 14,000 |
| Victoria’s Secret | 1,000 |
No! It means, I think, that people don’t know about plantar fasciitis, so they are seeking information on the Internet. They need understanding, rather than a specific product, be it a boot or a roller.
Everyone knows what Victoria’s secret sells.
People interested in marketing, pretty well know where to find what they need.
FitOldDog learned a bunch at the 2014 Internet Summit. Great investment of time and money. Photo by FitOldDog.
People with plantar fasciitis are thrown, painfully, into a world they don’t understand, like FitOldDog when he found his abdominal aortic aneurysm (thus this blog), and when he had plantar fasciitis the first time!
Does this mean that plantar fasciitis presents a better market than marketing itself, or Victoria’s secret? Well, I can’t compete in those markets, that’s for sure.
My business is information, leading to knowledge, and hopefully wisdom. I am attempting to sell wisdom? Yep! I’m working to accumulate, digest, and condense, information, on (a) living with aortic disease and (b) fixing plantar fasciitis, respectively. My work is designed to generate road maps, which appear as e-books and videos, and maybe other things in the near future. I’m not selling a physical product, other than a book or video. Is this a good business choice? Maybe, as the potential market is actually massive, but how to beat the big boys with their huge advertising budgets?
Based on personal observation, multiple blogs, and some great talks at the 2014 Internet Summit, it is clear that I will have to master one-one-one networking with real people. This is why I, and my body movement expert and co-author, Rebecca, are seeking plantar fasciitis stories. We need data. It turns out that it comes down to people; YOU.
Sign up here, and tell us your plantar fasciitis story, and you’ll help everyone.
On we go!
If I saw an advertisement in the paper for World Vision, which I know to be a religious organization, as a free thinker who doesn’t have a whole lot of time for religion, I’d just pass by. World Vision is clearly in the midst of a major marketing campaign, and here they are in the Mall, where I do my work. In this case, I was approached by two friendly people, Ruth Ann and John, who asked whether I would consider purchasing a goat and two chickens for a family in Africa, and eventually I said yes, shelling out $100.
Angie, the perfect waitress, with a new trick that made our meal perfect, combining great service with no unwanted interruption. Photo by FitOldDog with permission.
This was because real people, even after I harassed them with a debate on the existence or non-existence of their god, which I consider to be delusion, were polite, friendly, and clearly cared about helping people in need. They won me over; I sure hope that goat and those chickens arrive where they are supposed to.
And here is another example of the power of personal interactions: I was sitting down to enjoy lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory (great food, especially miso salmon with steamed spinach instead of mashed potatoes; forget the cheesecake) with a friend the other day, and we like to discuss the issues of the day, any day, without interruption. We were approached by our friendly and, as it turned out, skilled ‘waitress’ (sexist terminology?), Angie, who took our orders and then said, “I’ll leave the menu, here on the side of the table, and when you are ready for service, just move it to the edge of the table, and I’ll know when I’m needed. A very personal solution to a personal problem – service without interruption.
Brilliant and simple!
Finally, what has all this to do with Victoria’s Secret? Well, the quality of life depends very much on one’s environment. Until recently, the images in the Victoria’s Secret window, right next to where I buy my coffee, in Nordstrom’s, was essentially soft porn. This does not relax the male mind, and help him to focus on other things. Then they changed it.
Much better. Makes one think of beauty, adding quality to life. Clearly, marketing should be done with good taste, for this old dog, anyway.
Thank you Victoria’s Secret, Angie, Ruth Ann, John, and all those Internet Summit people, especially Chris Moody, for my ongoing training in marketing and sales.
PS you might think that some of my blog posts are too long-winded. Well, that is because I enjoy writing them so much. It gets the juices flowing.
If you made it all the way to here I’d be surprised, but if so, thanks for reading.
In fact, you deserve a medal. Send me your mailing address to fitolddog@fitolddog.com, and I’ll send you one for free, while stocks last!
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