Gordon,

We're all different and not everything that works, works for everyone. There are no guarantees in marketing, but I've found that from my experience MPM(AIDA) is the simplest and easiest of all the marketing formulas I've ever seen.

If you don't mind, I'd like to reply to some of the points you made.

Here you're talking about selling meat and flowers door to door......

NOW, door to door is hardly TARGETED
> marketing, and you rarely encounter people
> who WANT what you are selling.

I'd have to disagree with that, because it's targeted in a sense that certain products will do very well with humans in general. Products like meat (hunger) and flowers (feeling good) are easy to sell to the target market who are....the general population.

Being human, we all like to eat and like to give and receive, basic human traits, so I consider that if you selected humans in general as a target market, then the products I'd consider would be things that satisfy them, food and flowers being good examples.

> It is my job as a marketer to MAKE them want
> it.

While I agree that to some degree, we marketers must sell the sizzle and not the steak so much, we'll have a better response rate if we target meat eaters and not vegetarians. Hence selecting a market that loves eating meat, will always get a better response than selecting a mixed group of people.

> I agree here too, but experience has taught
> me that MARKETS can be created. The
> INNOVATOR takes the risks, then the rest of
> the group follows safely on tested and
> proven methodology...

Yes, I agree if you can come up with the next pet rock or pokemon or whatever will be hot, you will be fabulously wealthy. But personally I'd rather be the guy who jumps in as the wave is approaching and not the person who actually starts the wave. Starting waves (usually) requires large amounts of money and time.

>The MARKET was created. By the product. And
> more importantly by the SALESMANSHIP.

Very true, but I still believe it's easier to copy success than to invent it, especially if your on a time and money budget.

> Which is my point and opinion, it is OK to
> do that as long as you know that innovation
> is the harder road, the least likely to
> succeed, the one that requires the most
> work, BUT, may also have the greater payoff.

Exactly, I'd love to be the guy to come up with the next big thing, but you'll always have a better chance making money from existing markets. I rather create an add on product for pokemon, than have had to go through the time and money to bring pokemon to market.

When a company brings the product to market before there is an established market in place it usually involves huge amounts of time and money to force it upon people, even when it's not specifically wanted, but ultimately accepted.

>The PROBLEM Richard is it is NOT simple. It
> is NOT something everyone can do. Finding a
> MARKET takes incredibly hard work. Finding
> and testing a product is arduous.

I have to agree that making money from your own efforts isn't magic, yes it involves work, hard or easy is by definition. Is working in a coal mine for 2 months hard work compared to reading information and then applying it, testing it and learning from it as you go? It's all relative. The person in the coal mine finds sitting at a computer all day learning, testing and developing too difficult and yet you couldn't pay the developer to go in a mine for 10 minutes.

>Marketing
> is hardly as simple as AIDA. Although that
> plays an important part in one of the sales
> processes that take place.

Marketing is as simple as AIDA. AIDA works, it's made probably trillions of dollars. It's a simple concept to explain, grasp and apply.

> The reason there are so many SCAM sites, and
> the reason so many people start and quit
> businesses every year is because it is NOT
> simple or easy.

I have to disagree, people fail in business, because they either have something no one wants, they have no idea how to market or both.

> This is an excellent way to do it. But it is
> only one way. And you are an experienced
> marketer with a lot of success. My thing is
> this: skills of success are not easily
> transferrable or even easily acquired. MOST
> people who attempt to just use the AIDA
> formula come in too far up the line, before
> they know WHY they are even doing what they
> are doing.

> MOST people are not cut out to do the AIDA
> formula either in person or by REMOTE MEANS.
> It is my opinion that these are skills that
> can be hired out, and free the Entrepreneur
> to do other things.

I truly beleive that anyone can apply MPM(AIDA) to any situation and make it work. It's not magic, yes, I agree it requires work, but is it hard? Compared to what some people are already doing with their lives, I don't think so.

But it does require you to be prepared to learn and unfortuately many people want a magic genie that they can rub when they want something.

Gordon, thanks for your excellent response, I disagree with much of it, but value all of it indeed. It's good to find a public place where our opinions can be shared for the benefit of everyone without it turning into a flame war and constant deletion.

Richard.

P.S. 95% of all the people who ever buy anything that shows them how to specifically do something, will probably never apply any of it. Yet it gives them joy and hope to posses the knowledge. Is it wrong for us to give them what they want, so they can get a little closer to their dream? I believe that it's a very honourable thing to do, because there will always be that 5% who will actually take what you give them and move forward and reach their goals.