Jeff, You are Right, Both of YOU

Good Afternoon NITRO NATION,
We grew up in a round world where what we knew, was what we selectively listened to in school and at home, oh yeah, and what we heard on TV and Radio. All the feelings surrounding the Electronic Media we were inundated with during a typical advertisement were so good, so fresh, so positive and so cool that we associated those feelings with those products, mission accomplished.
Well, the world is not round anymore-http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/worldisflat.htm (Thomas Friedman a favorite author) it is FLAT. And the way we purchase things, as well as the reason, is the key to our future. If/When I hear/See an ad (very rarely as the only TV allowed to watch is Sport Center) I am immediately in the default "Scrutinization Mindset". I do not believe anything I see in an advertisement. Period. I know I cannot lose 100 pounds this week even though it is a promise and I can return the unused portion for a full refund if it does not deliver, I do not believe it.
YOU do not believe it. All Marketers all Liars, another great book by another favorite author Seth Godin http://www.allmarketersareliars.com/ . You have listened to me regurgitate the words of these genius writers in various blogs over the past year and the concepts just keep gaining momentum in our world of marketing. One of the great sales books ever written I read almost a decade ago by this great author Geoffrey Gitomer,(more recently changed his first name to Jeff, easier to locate on Amazon he said :) ) The Sales Bible http://www.gitomer.com/index.cfm?GitAction=Products.Overview . This Jeff is most impressive because of his ability to grow and change into the "New world Marketing" concepts. He wrote some very captivating products in the 90s that are obsolete tactics today, "Cold Calling and the importance of" is just one great example, it worked then, it does not work today.
The same as electronic media is less and less productive every day (SSSHHHHssshhhhh not so loud, we do not want Entercom or NBC to hear us. Do any you still own any electronic media stock :( ). (Grammar??)
Our market is different. Almost opposite as it was 25 years ago, in both good and bad ways.
One of the most important bullets to this Jeffs rhetoric is:"
"Just because you "know the brand" or "remember the brand"does not mean you're going to BUY it. And the reality is if I know it and recognize it, but I don't buy it, then all the money spent on branding is wasted. OUCH! "How many of you are forced to watch or listen to an ad, a very expensive, high quality, funny and impressive, top of the line ad for something you will never purchase. Maybe -the new diet coke with extra caffiene, or the miller lite, or stayfree maxis, or, or, or.... these ads I have seen recently and I will never purchase any of them.
Were they great ads? YES.
Were they expensive to create and deliver? YES.
Do I remember the jist of them at noon on a workday? YES.
Was all that wasted on me? YES
The only product, let alone brand that I see on TV or hear on the radio at the club that I will buy, is for bottled water. Now am I going to buy more bottled water because of the great ad? NO.
Are YOU? NO.
Are WE going to buy more of that brand of water because of, directly or indirectly, that wonderful professional expensive to create and more expensive to deliver advertisement? NO.
Now, is bad for You if You are the one spending all that money over there, like that. Good if you scroll down and deliver these ideas:
"Study your local market.
Look at the global market for other ideas.
Listen to the voice of your present customers.
Study creativity.
Build a customer-focused message.
Back it with quality and deeds.
Dedicate your people to friendly service.
And create the atmosphere where people want to, and are able to, BUY"
Not one of the authors I respect have written a suggestion to set up a table at HY-VEE and drag shoppers over to your wheel of NITRO. They all do however constantly reiterate the absolute best advertising in today’s marketplace is to connect personally with your potential customers. Speak about your product locally and ask permission to market your product to them. When someone completes a register to win slip, you have permission to market to them. When you speak to the Rotary club about fitness in a time crunched world, you are gaining permission to market to them.http://books.google.com/books?id=qgtgVsBTVEcC&pg=PA10&sig=TsJH-GubKBuz1tXJXLaBVGx9Mss#PPA13,M1Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends and Friends Into Customers By Seth Godin.
Our JEFF from up there in MI, is right because he is searching for answers and ways to create business, the other Jeff is right because he too is studying and researching the answers of all the "How to" marketing questions.

If it were such an easy answer or easy to execute, everyone would be doing it and moving into the realm of competing for consumers like us.
Find a way for you to connect to your market locally.
Do it your way, but DO IT!
DO NOT, (repeat of the important closing statement), DO NOT waste your money to create an ad, deliver it then sit in your NITRO Chair and wait.
DO NOT Wait for the consumers that saw, heard, believed, and acted because of it.
THEY ARE NOT COMING! NOT NOW, NOT NEXT WEEK, they are NEVER COMING to you. You must go to them, where they are, and create a relationship that starts with:
Hello my name is________from NITRO FITNESS and I would like to invite you to learn more about how WE are helping people, like us, get in better shape.

We could talk/write/read for years about the combination of advertising and marketing for great results, but that is a whole other rant.