She got no money from me.
To better understand the "marketing" at work in
the panhandling biz, I tried to put myself inside her head a bit -- and
beyond that, I also tried to surmise and factor in the effects of her
long experience.
- How did the technique of panhandling that I'd observed develop?
- What conclusions about her Customer had this marketer come to, for
all her years in the field?
- Were they sound choices?
- What could any of it tell me about larger trends in the "industry"?
I've been told I have a gift for combining praise and condemnation
into single statements. Well, that certainly is true, and I have been
giving my dear adoptive Industrial Mother -- the porn biz -- a hard time
on a number of fronts for nearly a year. What can I say but...
I LOVE YOU, Mom. It's only because I care so very
much.
In other articles, I've written (ostensibly) on other subjects,
I have held the enormous financial success of the porn business responsible
for a number of the ills that plague us. These ills come in all sizes.
From a general aloofness and lack of urgency at the highest levels of
leadership and influence, to a narrowness of imagination in the details
of making and selling our Product.
Before I had even uttered a sound, Debbie (just to giver
he a name) had already disengaged me and turned on her heel in the direction
of her next prospect.
Was it my face? -- I wondered. What did she recognize in
me tonight, that meant to her "no sale"? She
was quite right in her assessment of me, of course. Tonight I was not
disposed to buy. But the question remains -- did she discern
that in my case, or did she just happen to guess right?
Bravo to Debbie, if the first case -- that would indeed
qualify as an evolution of Marketing Science. But, if Debbie
is, instead, optimizing for throughput, at the sacrifice of qualitative
discernment -- well then, that wouldn't be so good.
If you are a business owner/operator in Adult, and your
numbers look like this...`
and this...
It's going to be difficult convincing you there may be something wrong.
But, as I look out across the landscape of our marketing
methodology, as I visit the sites of our most "successful" operators,
I'm becoming concerned that we have been focusing on efficiency,
with admirable results, but may have dropped a bigger ball.
I have written speculatively before now about the Role of Porn in Sex Culture -- we're not just selling smut, we're making the images
that people see (WE MAKE THE IMAGES!). To look at what we sell and how
we sell it, we don't seem to understand that we (the
Pornographers of the world) are telling people what sex is.
While that is an awesome responsibility, it may not concern you as a businessperson
-- especially if you are "successful" and feel little reason
to examine your methods.
But, my little encounter with Debbie tonight has made me
realize that optimizing for maximum throughput and maximum revenue yield
per existing customer may be (in spite of all it has done for
financial performance so far) a grievous business mistake.
Like Debbie, the porn business understands that sometimes
people just don't want to look at us, and might for a moment wish to pretend
we don't exist. Though the products we "sell" are very different
(Us: sexual gratification. Her: a brief feeling of charitability) we are
both very well acquainted with rejection. A
person who stands up for the rights of the homeless in Washington may
not offer a coin on the street. Likewise, the Senator who jerks off to
Tawnee
Stone every day in his office, may not have good things to say about
the industry that made the product that gratified him.
Both Debbie and the Porn Industry are justified in feeling
a little insecure. It's reasonable for us to have a chip on our shoulder.
Even in my brief, two-second exchange with her, I could
see it in Debbie's eyes that she had been spit at and spoken to with contempt --
many, many times. It's inevitable that such treatment will take its toll
on a person -- or an industry.
It would be unfortunate (not to mention bad business) if
we let our critics make us afraid to market to new customers. "Demand"
may be a foregone conclusion, but if our marketing doesn't reach beyond
our current borders -- we're already in a ghetto.
If we have had nothing to say to our customers before
they hit the join page, then, when they buy, if the buy, what the
buy will have all been determined upstream, by somebody
else.
2HP
PS: I want to congratulate RageCash
on the launch of an exciting new program, that is obviously not afraid
to innovate and experiment and to reach out for customers in new ways.
Well done, guys.
