The book / Marketing / chapter 21 of 60

The stage marketers’ magic formula doesn’t exist

Adriano Meirinho · Marketing e Gestão Postos à Prova (2018) · 3 min read

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WHOA, hold on. What is this nonsense? Emails like these are the fuel stage marketers use to convince people around the world that they know the magic formula for getting rich online. The world is saturated with motivational talks, PowerPoints that are (not always) pretty, English buzzwords, (worn-out) catchphrases, digital influencers, speakers, coaches, experts, and all kinds of people trying to put small ideas on stage without any real results. Instant success, fame, and money are the goal of this kind of “professional.” And since this is the dream of most people across Brazil, it’s easy to buy what we want to hear. Perhaps the only impressive thing is how stage marketers manage to convince people without showing any real work experience they have had. One example from entrepreneurship is Bel Pesce, known as the “Menina do Vale” (“Valley Girl”), who gained recognition all over Brazil and was invited to give thousands of talks on business management without ever having worked as a manager in a company. It works almost like a self-help course, the category where many of these “marketing professionals’” books sit on the shelves. Everything is possible: you have to be bold, be enthusiastic, transform the impossible, surround yourself with passionate people, take control of your life, be creative, and change the world! Hard work, constant dedication, continuous strategy testing, mistakes, and rolling up your sleeves are nowhere near any of their views of success. Everything is overcome with motivation, hope, and a sly knack for standing out on magazine covers and bestseller titles. The company they work for is themselves, and it has never gotten off the ground.

All this glamour doesn’t exist. Messages like this make it clear that, although they often get the spotlight they seek, marketers who are all show don’t deserve all that prestige. There is no easy path, magic formula, or revolutionary methodology. There is no way to reach the top alone, and nobody wakes up overnight with 7 more figures in their bank account (unless they win the Mega-Sena lottery). If stage entrepreneurs have any skill, it is making content go viral without any depth or real usefulness. Charlatanism: that is the name for what they do. While their main interest is selling their personal image, stage marketers want to shove products down people’s throats without clearly, objectively, and realistically analyzing the needs of the audience they want to reach. Solving the customer’s problem is more important than selling.

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