BEING THERE WHEN IT COUNTS: Are You Vomiting on People?

Being There When It Counts with Rick Itzkowich

A recent statistic shows that only 18% of TV campaigns show a positive ROI (return on investment). In addition, of the people who have access to TIVO /DVR, 90% fast forward and skip TV commercials. The reason for this is because TV ads are interruptions. They interrupt the show we WANT to watch. Most of the time, they are completely irrelevant to us and not welcome. Thanks to technology, we can now pretty much remove the interruptions.

Now consider this scenario. You’re watching the latest James Bond movie and you see James hop in his brand new 300 horsepower, 135i BMW convertible after beating the bad guys and seducing the beautiful girl.

By placing the vehicle INTO the movie, BMW has succeeded where TV commercials fail. They integrated their “ad” into the movie we want to watch. In essence they have avoided interrupting us. So even if BMW’s product placement is irrelevant to us, at the very least, it’s not intrusive. In this day and age, this is a much more effective marketing strategy because it is subtle.

This same scenario is happening in the online networking world. Thanks to technology, we are now able to send our message to thousands of people at a time. This is the good news. The bad news is -- thousands of people are now sending us THEIR messages and most are of no interest to us. They are in fact a cacophony of noise. And the noise is getting louder. It feels as if people are vomiting on us.

The offline networking version of this would be when you attend a face-to-face networking event, and there are people who walk the venue collecting and handing out business cards to everyone they meet. They then proceed to add these people’s email addresses to a list and start spamming. How annoying is that!

So what can we do to expand and grow our business? The answer is to think product placement vs. advertising. Product placement requires us to be more creative and subtle. It is far more elegant. It looks at the world from not only our perspective, but also our intended audiences. It recognizes that a relationship needs to be built. And, screaming and yelling is not an effective way to do this.

I recently created a new group on LinkedIn. The purpose of the group is to provide education, resources and opportunities for people in order to establish a convergence of both the online and the offline networking worlds. There’s a place for people to promote their products and services. Most people are using the advertising model. They tell us what they do and how wonderful their products are.

However, there was one person who incorporated the product placement model. Her product is a new platform which allows you to send video emails. Rather then tout her product, she used her video email product to comment and exclaim about one of the other person’s products. In this way she subtly showcased her product’s capabilities. This strategy was very effective. So the next time you are tempted to directly advertise your product/service, consider product placement instead.

This month's QuoteAction is by Communications Theorist, Marshall McLuhan

"A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding."

Your action is to look at one of your strongly held points of view from a different perspective. See if you gain some new understanding--helping you feel differently about it.

Enjoy an Extraordinary Month!

Click *here* to find out more about QuoteActions and some of the other innovative products and services offered by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER.

As the creator of QuoteActions, a unique relationship building system, Rick Itzkowich finds his articles, podcasts and blog messages regarding keeping your brand "top of mind" in high demand.

His, latest product LinkedIn Power Success System , is a must for those people wanting to earn money using LinkedIn.

Rick is also the Co-founder and Vice President of Productive Learning & Leisure, a personal development training company for corporations and individuals.
Rick can be reached at rick@productivelearning.com


For more information, please visit Rick's TNNWC Bio.

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BEING THERE WHEN IT COUNTS: Are You Vomiting on People?