Learning Specificity in Marketing from Mount Everest

In Affiliate Marketing | 7 comments | permalink

Who was the first person to put two feet on Mount Everest?

Those of you with some mountain based trivia may be thinking that it is either Edmund Hillary or Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, but you would be wrong.

It was actually Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal, was the first to identify Everest as the world’s highest peak in 1852, using trigonometric calculations based on measurements, it was found to be exactly 29,000 feet (8,839 m) high…

this frustrated Sikdar, as he knew that people would assume he just rounded the figure up or down, and they wouldn´t believe it as an accurate measurement.

So, to ensure he was believed, he added two feet, and so, it was said to be 29,002 feet high.

So what is the lesson here?

Well, first, I tricked you with a little play on words (apologies for that)… but more importantly, this is a lesson in the importance of specificity in marketing.

“Make $1,000 per week” would be a lot less powerful than “make $548 ever 72 hours”…

and Lose 10lbs, would be less powerful than “I lost 8.5lbs in 9 days with 42 mins exercise”

So be specific in your marketing… otherwise, people won´t believe your claims.

Dean

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7 COMMENTS

  • http://www.CollectiblesCornerTV.com Tammy

    Now you’ve gone and got me thinking that everything written down is actually a lie… Is a mile really 5280 feet? Maybe it’s 5200…
    Maybe a pound is 15 ounces…
    Damn you Mr. Hunt and your facts! ;)

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  • http://www.ThreeMoneyMethods.com Make Money Methods

    Hey Dean!

    I had never read that story, but it’s a great example of why people should be more specific, and also is a shame that as humans, we have a hard time accepting the truth when it seems to “normal” or “round” to be true.

    Interesting tidbit though… I’ll probably find myself repeating it to friends.

    Thanks!

    Jonathan

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  • http://kwivia.co.uk Jack

    This was off QI a while back :P

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  • http://www.gilscorner.com Gil Corner

    I loved the headline. I also loved the fact that you tell a story to get the point across. You can learn a lot by looking at the post itself regardless of the content.

    And the content is so true. Funny what one needs to do to overcome how we are wired as people. Even though the facts are solid, we still need to market them.

    Great post.

    Gil

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  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Thanks Gil,

    Yes, I am prone to using a few little content tricks myself ;-)

    Storytelling is key in marketing, selling and blogging… that will always be the case.

    Dean

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  • http://interactive-blogger.com Peter Davies

    Interesting post. Its a sad fact that if retailers of any kind didn’t play around with words they would not sell anywhere near as many products given the fact that most retail purchase decisions are based on emotion rather than actual need!

    Anyway – this is the first time I’ve visited your blog, I sure will come back to revisit soon

    Regards
    Pete

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  • http://www.betterrestbetterliving.com/sleeping-well/ David Stillwagon

    I hadn’t ever heard that story before. Very clever.

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