Why Spend Money on Marketing? PDF Print E-mail

Picture this: A man walks up to you on the street. He's nicely dressed, clean-shaven, and well groomed. "Excuse me," he says, "I wonder if I might have a minute of your time to talk to you about how I can save you a great deal of money."

What do you do?
  1.  Step around him and keep on walking.
  2.  Say "Excuse me, I'm in a hurry," then step around him and keep on walking.
  3.  Say to him "Of course I'm interested. Please tell me more."
Unless you're a very unusual sort of person, you'll do 1. or 2. But why? Well, regardless of how he's dressed or how polite he acts, you don't know him.

Now consider this. The next day you see him on the elevator in your office building. He smiles and nods. Do you smile back? Perhaps. Or maybe you're just trying to place him. "Ah yes," you think. "It's that fellow from the street."

That evening as you and the others in your car pool are leaving the building, you see him again. This time he's getting into his car (a Mercedes convertible). He waves at you. Do you wave back? Maybe weakly perhaps, but you now feel obliged to acknowledge his presence. You turn to the others and ask: "Does anyone know who that is?"

"Sure," one of them says, "That's the guy from Robbletussen and Jalinsky the marketing firm downstairs."

And let's say this continues for a couple of days. You see him and he nods or waves each time until one day, he approaches you again. "Say there my name is Bob. I just wondered if there isn't some time when I might talk to you. It will just take a minute."

"Well er"

"I really believe I might be able to save you a great deal of money."

And now, perhaps, you feel you can give him, at the very least, a minute of your time.

There are two reasons why most of us would finally succumb to the man's request: credibility and repetition.



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