Marketing and selling spiel alive and well for the Autumn 2014

Folk striding down the Strand in central London last Sunday

...Let's all go down the Strand ('ave a banana)

Let's all go down the Strand.

I'll be leader, you can march behind,

Come with me and see what we can find.

Let's all go down the Strand ('ave a banana)

Oh! What a happy band.

That's the place for fun and noise

All among the girls and boys

So let's all go down the Strand.

( from a music Hall song of 1908 by Harry Castling and C. W. Murphy)

Passing  Brand consultancy, Interbrand's shop window in central London’s Strand my eye was  drawn to the latest version of sophisticated marketing speak  on marketing  retail brands (see photos below).

New season, Fresh Start, New Beginnings

In part of the business cycle there is a temptation to self delusion to begin to think that we are not “really in Sales”. We cultivate a sophisticated language to disguise our selling responsibility with new definitions , new words, new self descriptions.

We no longer are coffee shop sales staff but baristas. We no longer sell stocks and shares but are portfolio managers. 

The I-store no longer has sales counter staff or floor walkers from the era of Grace Brothers but


‘deliverers of amazing customer experiences’ 

who

‘ connect consumers and businesses with our amazing products.’


 Their salespeople are called
 ‘ Specialist’,
 ‘Expert’ , 
‘Business Specialist’ 
and ‘Business manager’.

Selling Environment

The environment we sell from or attract buyers to tends to look less like a conventional shop for our goods.

 Our websites take on the look of entertainment websites, estate agents dress their offices more like a business-class airport lounge with top end French mineral water bottles in glass cabinets. 

Whatever we call ourselves let's not forget what we are paid to do . maybe keep it real and not surreal but then again...

  Reminiscent of René Magritte’s famous surrealist  artwork  

The treachery of images . 

His 1928/29 picture showed a pipe with the caption beneath

 "Ceci n'est pas une pipe.", tr."This is not a pipe."

"....Oh! What a happy band.

That's the place for fun and noise

All among the girls and boys......"

Bon Courage my fellow Sellers and Marketer for this  new Autumn season