Passionate About Marketing

I love the science behind marketing, why people buy certain things, the way they move and flow through retail spaces. It is an actual science and art form all at once. The art comes as companies compete to vie for your attention and feelings to entice you to their product.

Those tear jerker Christmas ads were the work of a team probably a year or more before you got to see them, working on how best to pull your heart strings. Family, pets and babies are all top money makers in the ad department.

Company colors are key to your visual experiences, reds, yellows, oranges are top visual preferences. Macdonalds, A & W, Wendy’s, Home Hardware come to mind… bright colors to track your eye while driving by.

I was talking to my friend about marketing and I remenised about watching shoppers stop at the end of a 6 foot entry mat just inside the front doors of a store I worked at. They would literally stop at the end of the mat because they had to make a decision on whether to proceed straight or go left or right. Over 75% of the people would simply stop and stare around the store from the mat, even though nothing was obstructing them. The sales clerk would have to talk them off the mat.

We extended the mat to 12 feet or more they would then walk right into the store to whatever sale or item that you placed there. It was fascinating.

We turned all the shelves in one of the stores I worked at to face another direction because the way they stood people would stop and not go around them. They rarely went to the back of the store. Once we changed the direction of the shelves people would check out the entire store, the flow changed. Browsing became a thing and people bought more.

Same store, same shelves, same products…simply change the flow.

Marketing, the science behind why we shop the way we do. True marketing is not simply science but oh so much more. I wote a blog a while ago about how you market yourself to the world by your dress or lack of, that’s one form of marketing.

Marketing is an all encompassing process. Marketing is not just what you see, not just what you hear, it is an ability to make you “feel” what I am talking about.

When I was a girl and my mom would be in the grocery store, I loved it when she bought coffee. In the coffee isle there was a large metal box. My mom would grab a bag of coffee beans, open it and pour the whole bag into that metal box. She would place the paper bag the coffee beans had been in under the spout and turn the machine on. The purr of the machine, the tantalizing and euphoric smell of coffee would float through the air and hang like a sweet smelling cloud over us all. Everyone wanted to buy coffee who was in that isle.

The smell of fresh roasted coffee is right up there with fresh baked bread! These smells delight our senses.

That coffee buying experience would have to be given a 10 out of 10 for excellent marketing. Here’s why - it engaged all 5 senses and made you feel the shopping not just “think” about it.

Your eyes had to look for the bag, the colors, the marketing on the bag, the wording. Your eyes saw the dark rich colors of the beans. Your ears heard the beans being ground into pieces of coffee you could use at home to brew a cup for yourself. Your hands held the bag, the feel of lumpy beans turning into smooth coffee grounds. Your nose was quickly assaulted with the delectable smell of coffee, instructing your tastebuds to wake up, to the point where you could taste a bit of coffee in your mouth.

That experience totally transformed your entire body into a marketing machine. You got the full 5 sense marketing experience. That is great marketing!

Marketing has to be done to entice you to want to make that whole experience happen in your environment, to be willing to grab the bag and experience it at home.

Those new car ads with the beautiful woman riding around in the car… it fills one or two of your senses.

Those food commercials when your mouth starts salivating and your stomach growls as the burger or pizza flashes on the screen. That’s great marketing because you are engaging with it.

Billboards and wraps around cars and buses they grab your eye attention. Especially for drivers we are taught to obey “signs” so we watch for them.

Jesus was the very best marketer in the entire world. Jesus did not give you facts and figures. Jesus gave you stories, often called parables. Stories fill your senses, they present word pictures in your mind: read these lines and notice what your mind does.

A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed some seed fell along the path….Mark 4:3-4

What can we compare the Kingdom of God …It is like a grain of mustard seed..Mark 5:31

Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket?… Mark 4:22

You got pictures in your mind as you read them… marketing.

There was the feeding of the 5,000, besides women and children, so between 10,000-15,000 people were fed. Jesus tells His disciples to feed the crowd. Baffled they look at Jesus and ask the normal question, “with what? We don’t have money to buy food, we did not bring food, with what Jesus and how do you want us to do that?”

Now Jesus already knows what He is going to do and sees this incredible teaching moment to illustrate, show, and demonstrate who He truly is. It is a marketing moment!

He says, “what have you got?” He asks His disciples to look around. They find some people with a couple bread loaves and a couple fish. Someone remembered to bring lunch.

Jesus has them sit down in groups, proceeds to thank God for the food and blesses it. Then breaks it up and puts it in baskets to hand out to the people. The amount of food that is left over even more exceeds that which went out. How? How on earth is that possible?

By earthly standards it is totally not possible. But in the Kingdom of God it is entirely possible, these people all 10-15,000 experienced the Kingdom of God first hand. Jesus uses this time to illustrate who He is, God. Only God could have multiplied the food like that. He taught one of the laws of His new Kingdom, use what you have and offer it up with thanksgiving, it will stretch to furthest heights!

What have you got? Are you willing to share it for the good of Gods Kingdom? Notice the people in the story gave their whole lunch. It wasn’t a 10%, it was the whole meal. They shared it with Jesus and He did the miraculous. Jesus modeled what the Kingdom of God is like. We share, He shares…..

Jesus was teaching about His Kingdom, and decided to show a display of how it works. Marketing at its finest.