I was talking with a friend the other day about dancing as an art form and the words “marketing” and “business” came up. She shook her head a little and told me whenever she hears those terms, things go fuzzy and she just tunes out. This was the second time in a month I’ve heard similar sentiments. The other person said “when I hear the word business, I hear my accountant droning on in my ear.”
So, what is it about these guys…they’re just words, after all. What do they represent to us that makes us not want to pay attention? This is going to sound a tad sexist, but I think some women find those words intimidating. Men love to talk about business strategies and marketing metrics. Even if they have no clue what they’re talking about, they can go on and on and on. Women would rather talk about anything else. (I realize I’m making a rash generalization here…I, for one, love talking about growing businesses. It’s why you’re reading this blog.)
Let’s tackle the word Marketing for now. In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya “I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Years ago, way before the Internet or even cell-phones, marketing was something done with a warlike mentality. You hired a big expensive advertising agency where guys in thousand-dollar suits would convene in a “war room” and build “strategies” for your “campaign.” (Seriously, doesn’t that sound like someone about to take over a small innocent country?) The goal was to build an unforgettable Brand, establish a platform, and saturate the media with images. All this in hopes that with repeated exposure your name and image would be “Branded” on the public’s subconscious. So, when they felt like getting a cool refreshing drink…the image that immediately comes to mind is Coke.
It worked really well in the days of three TV stations and captive audiences. It was called “interrupt marketing,” and it was really really expensive.
That was then and this is now.
Brand advertising via media saturation is dying a slow, tortured death for all but the largest companies. It’s not going out quietly…it’s kicking and screaming all the way. But people are just sick to death of interrupt marketing.
We hate commercials, and now that we have Tivo, we don’t have to watch.
We hate obnoxious radio jingles, and now that we have ipods, we don’t have to listen.
We hate pop-ups–so we have pop-up blockers.Technology is constantly trying to figure out the next way to get around advertising. And old-school marketers are constantly fighting for new ways to get in front of the public eye (like mobile marketing–ads on your cell phone).
The death of interrupt marketing is fabulous news for your belly dance business! Here’s why…
The new meaning of the word marketing is Relevant information delivered to an interested audience.
You can call it “social marketing” or “relationship marketing” or whatever you want, but it’s all about building communities of like-minded people and talking about what interests them (including your products.) How easy is that? Belly dancers have been doing this forever. It’s what we do. All the time. In our sleep.
Do you have a newsletter? That’s marketing.
Do you have a group on Tribe? That’s marketing.
Do you talk to your students about what’s happening in their everyday lives? That’s marketing, too.
When you build a community around your product (which most of the time is YOU), word of mouth just happens. And thanks to the Internet, you can build a community with members all around the world! There’s no limit to who will be interested in what you have to offer.
When someone asks a friend where she got that gorgeous hip scarf, she’s going to say “I got it from this awesome vendor. I met the owner at a seminar, and she was so nice. She let me try on every scarf they had! They have a web site you can order from, here’s the address. Oh, and make sure you sign up for their newsletter–I got the best recipe from last month’s issue.”
You can’t buy that kind of advertising!
You have to build it…one customer at a time.
Just by being a nice person. Just by making friends.
Tribal Marketing. How cool is that?
