I’m glad you’re reading this 3-part series because although the three blog posts are in reverse order, I want you to review each one carefully and think about how they impact the growth of your business. 

I believe the 3 Marketing Paradoxes can have a profound impact on your business and marketing activities this upcoming year and many years to come. So it pays to re-read each post a few times to allow the message behind the message to sink in … just like they have for me.

According to Wikipedia, ”a Paradox is a true statement that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition; or, inversely, it can be a contradiction that actually expresses a non-dual truth.”

Marketing is about “changing consumer minds” through the promotion of products and services through the utilization and influences of advertising and branding.

(The term – marketing - was developed from the original meaning of “marketing” which literally referred to going to market, as in shopping, or going to a market and selling products and services).

So I’d define a Marketing Paradox as “a branding opportunity that leads to a contradiction which may defy intuition.”

Paradox #1: “The Paradox of Distribution”

If you’ve ever sold products to retail stores, you’re probably already familiar with the Paradox of Distribution.  As the term suggests:

“You can’t get adequate distribution of a product until you’ve proven it can sell; but, you can’t prove it can sell until you’ve gotten adequate distribution in the market.”  

That’s a tough pill to swallow if you make your living as manufacturer’s sales representative (as I did in the late 1980s). 

And it is because of this first marketing paradox why most mass merchant chains such as Wal-Mart, Walgreen or Target stores require truckloads of distribution support in the form newspapers, billboards, direct mail, TV and radio advertising.

Companies that sell to retailers are commonly known as the push-marketers of the marketing and distribution world.  They create their market demand; also called the “post-distribution” phase of the sales cycle.
 
In contrast, online companies and marketers are commonly known as pull -marketers because their product’s market demand is automatically created in “pre-distribution” phase of the sales cycle. 

Makese sense?  (Re-read those two paragraphs now so it’s clear in your mind).

If you’re a pull-marketer, you have less guesswork with your advertising and promotional spending (and your marketing costs are cut dramatically) because your product or service sales are actually being funded by your product or service distribution!

If you currently sell your products or services online via Internet marketing or offline via direct mail, television or radio (event QVC or HSN), then  you’re considered a direct response marketer who utilizes pull-marketing for distribution.

Key Point: If you decide to become a pull-marketer you instantly overcome the marketing obstacles hurled your way because of the Paradox of Distribution. 

You can also learn more about these time-proven strategies in many of the virtual trainings I teach such as Teleseminar Secrets, Podcast Secrets, Virtual Book Tour Secrets, Doubling Income Secrets, Stick Strategy Secrets.

What To Do Now: Please give me your candid comment below and tell your friends and colleagues to read this post and give me their candid comments below as well.  Sounds fair enough doesn’t it?

Tags: alex mandossian, blogging, direct response, Info Marketing, paradox, posts, publishing, Teleseminars, wikipedia

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 9:50 am and is filed under Books, General, Info Marketing, article marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.