How to turn a weakness into a strength
How do you turn a weakness into a strength? In one word: marketing. I had already read some stories about Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the one about his initial venture on the bricklaying business was new to me.
When Arnold first arrived in the United States he tried to make a living from bricklaying, but things were not going well despite the fact that he was charging low prices. The main problem was the fact that he was a foreigner.
What initially appeared to be a weakness turned out to be a key success factor when Arnold applied some marketing to his business. He decided to increase his prices above the competition and to market his services not as traditional bricklaying but rather as “Austrian Bricklaying”. This was by far more prestigious, and it was also compelling for the Los Angeles Customers.
Thanks for David Armano for sharing this story (click here to read his post). According to him the story teaches us that sometimes the best marketing involves exaggerating certain “truths”.
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I did read Armano’s original post… and it is an instructive story.
But it also raises questions like this:
when does “ethics” rear its ugly head?
does playing upon people’s vanity or greed or whatever constitute “good marketing”?
what happens when large numbers of vain, greedy people naturally want to consume ever more stuff, and are intentionally encouraged to do so by “smart marketing”?
is one name for that: “global warming”?
is another name for that: “constant war”?
Hi,
I agree with David, we may be venturing into something that may affect one’s integrity.
While I do believe that ethics and integrity should come before business, I do not think that this story is a example of crossing that line.
Is it non-ethical if you increase the price of your product and customer’s perception change as a consequence? I do not think so.
Global warming and similar concerns can be analysed under a much bigger picture that frames the whole capitalist system, and marketing is just a tiny piece of it.
Thanks for the comments though, they add to the discussion.