The world is full of descriptions and attempts to mold the definition of marketing, but so far I haven’t found a clear characterization of this escaping concept we face every day. To me – marketing is present in everything that we do on a daily basis; promise a surprise to your children to convince them to dress warm and – bang – you just did some marketing without even knowing it. Launch a new product and do whatever necessary to make the market react positive about it and you delivered yet another marketing punch.
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Seduction or Marketing

Everything that we do, from the mundane to the most exciting has in some way a direct or indirect connection to the concept of marketing. Even now, as you read this article, you are unknowingly participating in my marketing efforts of promoting knowledge through this blog. 

So..what is Marketing then?

Marketing is an action (or multitudes of actions), visual or otherwise, emanated from a source (you, a company, etc.) and directed to a receiver (those you want to gain from) in order to obtain something (money, fame, acceptance, friendship, love, power, etc.) 

Marketing is based on the concept of seducing. Seducing the clients into buying your product or pay for your services; seducing your friends into accepting you; seducing your in-laws to love and accept you. 

You can employ a variety of mediums to start your seducing process – intricate part of getting the message out (i.e. ads in print or online media, articles on blogs and ezines, pictures on or offline, TV, radio, social media networks, etc.)

The 2 elements that sit at the base of the seducing act are: words (spoken or written) and images (pictures or videos).

Sometimes one of the elements is more powerful than the other but their continuous switching their power position gives the dynamics of the marketing process as a whole.

Several years ago, a former heavy weight champion of the world – George Foreman, introduced the “George Foreman Grill” on a shopping network. Although everyone knew George Foreman, the sales were nothing to brag about, until, ignored by the network hosts, George proceeded to eat a delicious burger grilled minutes before on the same grill he was so trying to seduce the viewers with. That image alone generated instant sales.

The end result – huge profits for the “George Foreman Grill” company due to several minutes of live filming of a hungry heavy weight (no pun intended) right there in the studio, unrehearsed and uncut.

See the 2 elements switching?

First George appears – image seduction. Then he starts talking about the benefits of owning such a product – word seduction. When both elements fail to entice viewers into buying, he switches again to the image seduction of sinking his teeth into a freshly grilled burger. Image wins.

Here’s another example:

It is said that if TV would have been around at the time, Abraham Lincoln would have never been elected. Why? Because we are visual “animals” and apparently the lanky Illinois native was not a pretty picture to look at. Not according to our standards anyway.

His words though, on letters or speeches resonated well with the American people and seduced them into electing him the president of the United States. In this case, word alone won over the image.

Now-a-days our society is much more complex and the mediums where we display our seductions are diverse.  We need to take in consideration both elements of the seduction process and combine them both in an organized and structured way in order to become truly effective in our marketing effort.

 Claudiu Geanta is a successful online business owner and founder of Design by Satori Inc. & ProIncome Marketing, LLC. He teaches businesses how to build an optimum online presence. He is also and accomplished web designer and photographer. You can follow him on twitter.

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