Marketing Nothing
Mon, August 3, 2020 
I remember having a conversation with someone in the 1980s. I think the conversation arose out of the fact that I was producing a handmade product, which was becoming increasingly rare.
I can’t even remember who the person was, but I clearly remember while referring to The United States, he said:
“We will eventually become a Nation of People producing nothing, just selling insurance to each other.”
It seems to me this prediction looms ever closer to coming true, but by now the terminology has changed. No one is “Selling” anything anymore, it is now called “Marketing.”
The problem is whether you are selling or marketing, it only works if people are buying, and in today’s economic climate people do not have loads of spare cash lying around to buy much of anything.
Now the world is full of “Marketing Gurus.” These are people who can no longer make a living by selling stuff, because no one is buying. So now they are selling nothing more than an idea, that you can make a ton of money selling or marketing on the Internet.
I ask myself this: If I found a way to make a lot of money, would I need to sell that idea to other people? No, I would be too busy making money.
There is an old story about a man in his neighbor’s garage when he notices a large number of boxes containing cleaning products. He remarked, “You must sell a lot of cleaning supplies.”
The neighbor replied, “No, but the man who sells me this stuff, he sells a lot of cleaning supplies.” It is the Internet Marketing Gurus who are making money, not the poor suckers who buy their idea.
Over the years I attended my share of sales seminars and read many books on the subject. What always troubled me was the messing with people’s minds, to convince them they needed what it was I were selling
Often it was borderline trickery to convince them that having whatever it was I was selling would make them happier, and their lives better than holding on to their hard-earned cash. Although not illegal, it somehow seemed to me to be morally wrong.
Companies and corporations need to start thinking about the people who work for them as well as their bottom line. Is it really necessary to lay people off and send jobs overseas?
Okay, so your product may cost a little more, and you sell a little less. But there are always people who will pay the extra for a quality product, and some because of the fact it is home produced. Downsizing and cutting back on some employees is better than firing everyone and sending the entire production offshore.
When I had my bike business, I was competing head on with the large Italian bike builders, who would send over in one container shipment more than my entire year’s production. But I was able to compete because I did not have the shipping and wholesale costs that they had.
I did not have their advertising costs of my large competitors either, because I only needed to sell a fraction of what they did.
I think the good thing that will come out of this recession is that people will become used to getting by on a little less. They will live simpler lives, less dependent on all this material stuff.
And the people listening to these Internet Marketing Gurus because it seems the only avenue open to them. Think again, they are selling nothing but an idea. False hope, or worse, a scam that will take what little you have, rather than make you money.
One cannot produce nothing and sell it indefinitely. What is needed is people producing worthwhile products or providing worthwhile services that other people need. Provide that and the marketing will take care of itself.
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Reader Comments (4)
people will become used to getting by on a little less
Sadly, in the US and similar places, that means those who can get by on a little less will, and many others will find they cannot get by on less so they won't. They'll be hungry, then homeless, then dead, but the US will remain "the best country in the world"{tm}
The quote that I keep coming back to is along the lines of "a society is measured by how it treats its least fortunate".
One problem is the race to the bottom, which is heavily propagandised in schools and media. We're told, often and vigorously, that price is the primary measure of value. Fortunately there's increasing push-back on that and more people are aware of the Vime's Boots problem (rich people can afford to buy stuff that lasts, poor people are lucky to have something that lasts a week. To you and me, that's the Bicycle Shaped Object problem)
At one time I wanted to be a product photographer. Maybe I would have had some satisfaction in the job and doing it well. However, I ended up doing something else instead and I'm glad I did because in general, I don't like marketing / advertising now and I avoid it like the plague.
"Sending jobs overseas" is a complex issue. You will be aware that millions of people in developing countries have been lifted out of abject poverty with the wages from those jobs. Way better than sending money or bags of corn.
When I was a kid, there were probably 20 shoe factories in Maine alone. Today there is one (sortof). I have never heard anyone say they wanted their kid to grow up to be a shoemaker, so there's one problem. A second is what a par of shoes would cost if they were "Made in USA". $200? We'd be back to handing the kids shoes down one to the next - or be like kids in poor places who only wear their shoes while actually *in* school, to save them for the next users as they outgrow them. People tend to vote with their wallets - that's why WallyMart's owners are so rich.
The US has Google and Microsoft and Apple and Boeing, with many US jobs created. Better jobs than shoemaking, I suspect. Countries (and regions) need to focus on local excellence, access to raw materials and expertise. Anyone can make a pair of shoes - do you want to be the best? Or cheapest? If neither, why are you wasting your time making shoes at all?
Most countries (outside of North Korea) both export and import goods. Trade is a two-way street. It is hard to get people to buy your stuff if you won't "trade" it for their stuff. Oddly enough, the Soviet Union tried to produce everything people needed in-country and that didn't end very well. You need the competitiveness of a free market to encourage innovation and improve (Exhibit A - the now-dead Australian car industry - supported by high import duties and huge gov't subsidies for years until it all ended in tears).
As you know, retail sales have actually ticked *up* during this pandemic. On different stuff for sure - fashion is dead for now. Home DIY is booming. That's a result of those $600 checks - which in some cases was more than people made working a 48 hr minimum-wage week. Maybe there is something in democratic socialism after all.
@SteveP — good points.