The art of marketing and selling very well.
Do you know the book called “The Art of War” by Master Sun of the Chinese empire during late BC (700 to 400BC)?
Well the times may have changed but the art remains the same because people’s raw emotions are still unchanged despite millenia. If you tell somebody a hurtful thing they will have a choice of emotions to choose from:
1) Anger
2) Saddness
3) Fear
4) Indefference
Intellectual responses may be vast in range but the underlying feeling categories are severely limited. People cannot control their emotions as they would like to believe. That is why mob mentality and peer pressure still plagues us to this day.
Any good marketer understands these emotional responses and takes his cues from them. The internet has lead to marketing laziness. (Yes I suffer from marketing laziness too.) The selling point has been distorted with the vastly successful long sales page mail marketing and lead to people trusting that a well written sales letter has the power to magically draw money out of the wallet of the surfer.
They have reduced the most important person (the customer) to hits and conversion rates. The life-time value of the customer (which can be substantial) has been neglected for the morning bank balance.
The art of selling comes in giving an individual an item or service they need or want at a fair price. The art of marketing is determining that need or want and telling the customer about your solution.
We as marketers have the ability to build unconditional trust with our contacts, turning them into life-long customers and the internet allows us to retain the connection we need as a spieces.
More on selling and marketing later.