January, 2016 - Ina Disguise

Testing Marketing theory

Since I published Best Scandal Ever in May 2013, I have been rather lazily testing marketing theories I learned in Second Life. So far so good, I have learned a lot from doing very little, and now have a large variety of outlets for my little niche. I have spent little, and done a lot.

A few months back a group of fashion graduates tweeted out that they required $25,000 to produce four handbags. I asked why they would need this amount of money? They replied that this was to produce four prototypes and market themselves. I think I have already demonstrated that this is nonsense. If your product is good, you do not need the ridiculous amount of capital suggested on the average course, and you do not need a half million a year to promote to the luxury market.

Now you could tell me that since I am still a fledgling author and artist at this point, that this is extremely presumptious of me, that time is money, and had I acquired $25,000 I would have a viable business, staff and be moderately famous as an author by now. I would reply to you that this would lead to a shoddy product, many complaints and undue pressure to produce a product that would make me ultimately unhappy.

I see too many thirty and forty somethings who have invested heavily in what they imagined was the perfect life, only to find they were unhappy and mediocre as a result. I used to be a super fast achiever, not unlike the lightening fast Mr Wolfe, who is so speedy that I would challenge the paciest gamer online to outmove him at self promotion, but since the bereavements and enforced leisure period, my strategic streak has come to the fore and I am disinterested in putting out crap. If it isn’t meaningful, it isn’t worth doing. Ask the millionaire accountant who took up painting the fences at the Airds Hotel in Port Appin after a weekend away in the 1980s, and he will tell you much the same thing.

When starting from scratch, you have two options online, either you believe the hype and invest in vanity advertising in your chosen interest area, a majorly growing market that it would be wise to invest in as a shareholder, if not as an advertiser; or you invest time. After a little trial and error, my belief so far is that the latter is far more useful, and gives you time to sharpen your game. If you are any good, the market will come to you. There are obvious caveats to this, but generally speaking, this theory has been borne out by experience so far. A personal approach is also very worthwhile. It is insufficient to present the product as good, now you have to explain why and what it is for.

This year, I am taking a micromanagement approach to expanding my tiny niche, and there will be a few surprises in the form of writing, gaming, artwork. I will report back on this date next year as to how well this has worked out, but I suspect that, as I have seen so far, Second Life is an excellent grounding in online marketing. I may try some additional tweaks, but this is a ground up project, requiring a patient and steady approach. If I am correct, I will have made significant progress by this date next year, and all it will have cost me is time and a minimal advertising budget.

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Make it happen

Let me tell you a story, today, about my sister. Not the off-the-planet crazy one, but her sidekick, the drunk. She is fifty five years old, and has nothing positive to contribute to the world. If asked about any subject at all, she becomes aggressive and defensive, and will not lift a finger for anyone unless there is a self-serving reason for doing so.

Many years ago, when I was still a child, she told me to ‘get as much as I could’ because I wasn’t in the will, as it was made in 1964. Little did she know, that neither was she. My father took pains to tell me that his money had been amassed purely for my mother’s benefit, and that she was to have as much fun as possible. The year that my sister told me this, my mother told me that I was ‘to look after her once they were gone, as she wouldn’t be able to cope.’ And so the world turns. The selfless must care for the selfish.

Several years later, and this particular sister was telling me that I could not possibly understand her dilemmas on life, as ‘my life changes every day.’ This is true, if I want to change something, I do not tend to see obstacles in the way of my changing it. It may take a long time, or, as in the case of Wolfe, be improbable, but nothing is out of reach as far as I am concerned, even now. (in case he drops in on one of his ina-binges, this aside does not relate to meeting him in person as I would regard this as a waste of my time)

My sister has been in a constant rut since she was fifteen years old. She will do almost anything to avoid thinking for herself, and seems to believe that her rut is not only righteous, but a source of comfort. She is one of the unhappiest people I have ever met, despite having amassed quite a bit of money by staying in stable but mind numbing jobs which require a plodding non-initiative based approach. In short, the drunk is a screaming, poisonous bore.

This stability, and the effects of long term drinking, has led to her becoming a bitter, vindictive and malicious person who imposes her very narrow view of the world on anyone she perceives as weaker than herself. In the company of the narcissist serial bully, she is extremely dangerous, since she believes whatever she hears from the stronger personality, and carries out her deranged instructions. One of their many complaints about me began with ‘my elderly mother is extremely well looked after.’ This as they dumped my unwell mother back at our home and called in a complaint implying that my eldest sister’s inability to look after her was all my fault and that I should somehow be punished.

The lack of rationality aside, these women are both extremely unhappy, despite having comfortable and unrestricted lives. When I compare them with my own extremely constricted situation and frequent hardships whilst looking after my mother, I wonder why their freedom seems to go with such intense unhappiness that they must spend quite so much of their time inventing fantasy complaints about the life of my mother and I. Considering this liberty and affluence, I fear having nothing to strive for. Would it turn me into a bitter, grasping and nasty waste of space, clawing at the air in a deranged search for meaning in my life?

This week, I suggested to her that she might be happier moving away from the rest of the family and getting a life of her own. Her immediate reaction to this is likely to be that I am being manipulative. How she could manage to find manipulation in my stating clearly that this is what she should do, to free herself of the influence of the very spoilt and vindictive eldest sister, with the worry and spite that goes with it, I do not know, but I am entirely confident that she will complain to anyone that will listen that I have suggested that she simply go and seek happiness elsewhere instead of interfering with our lives for the benefit of nobody.

The likely outcome is that nobody will challenge this stupidity, and she will remain a thorn in our side, stopping us from doing anything remotely pleasant, for my mother’s remaining years. This is extremely tiresome. Her rut is now gaping wide enough for us all to fall into it.

If you are unhappy, you affect everyone. Make it happen.