What Have You Been Sold On – Marketing Happens Everywhere!

I wonder what you thought about the title of this post?

What do I mean marketing happens everywhere?

Just that-  it does! Every time you sell an idea to your kids like cleaning their room for extra time on the computer or TV, you have marketed to your kids. Every time your partner wants to do or buy something, they sell you on it.

History is one long marketing story and I wonder what you have been sold on???

Take for example the gender roles in society just for a start.

Right now women are mainly portrayed as powerful, smart and sassy; just think of Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, what started out as a man’s game fantasy has become more the ‘norm’ as more powerful, smart women are seen in movies and on TV.

Modern men however are often portrayed as not much more than overgrown teenage boys who can think of nothing other than breasts, sex, beer, sports and power tools.

This even applies to many of our super-hero types whose female counterparts have to ‘keep them in line.’

Stereotypes have never really portrayed men or women as they are, so every thing we think we know about men and women is and always has been a kind of marketing. We are sold on ideas of how men and women are in our current culture.

Once upon a time ‘men were men’ strong, independent and rugged, and women were treated like find china, incapable of being educated or managing anything other than their household chores.

Why do we believe these stereotypes? So we really?

Marketing also applies to politics, to religion, to almost every part of our lives. This post is meant to provoke a reaction in you, to ask yourself the question, what do I really believe?

Is my life worse off because I don’t have a new car? Am I really less of a person if I don’t have a new outfit? or TV, or Tablet?

What about the kind of business you ‘should’ be doing business with? Have you been sold on the idea that the corporate type who dresses for success will automatically do a better job? At times it is true, however not always.

Isn’t it about time we made a decision to know what is true and only be attracted by the authenticity of those businesses who’s own value system and beliefs match ours.

I hate being told what to believe, having come from a family whose religious beliefs about men, women and life are outdated at best and limiting to say the least, this is a big thing for me and I choose to do business only with those who match my authenticity and ethics.

I never allow marketing to influence my decisions only inform them, and that is the difference. When you allow what you see and hear to inform you and then do your research and check in with your feelings about what you see and hear, no-one will ever be able to influence your beliefs about life or yourself. You will never feel less than because an advertisement tells you, you are if you don’t have one of these cool widgets.

Marketing for me is more about informing and educating those around me about what I do and how to do it well, not about influencing their decisions about whether they need it.

So now that we have connected on this and I have informed you about what I believe, tell me What have you been sold on?