Wrong Place, Wrong Time

I spent Sunday afternoon at the Pathways Expo in Rockville. Pathways is a monthly local magazine of all things alternative, including massage therapy. They host a very popular bi-annual expo.

I was there with my friend Kitty Southworth. In addition to being a full-time massage therapist and co-owner of our training company, The Healing Core, she is also the US representative for Life Essences (and yes, I wonder when she sleeps sometimes myself). Life Essences is an Australian company started by our friend, Ben Risby-Jones. It carries products “designed to awaken awareness and invite change in your life and your spirit.” 

Kitty's had a booth at the Pathways Expo for several years now. She also had a booth a few times at the AMTA national convention. The thing is, the Life Essences are an unusual product not easily explained. It makes it difficult to sell to the person wandering by in a large expo/marketplace environment. People aren't looking for it, have never heard of it, and are in a “wander and see what's here” frame of mind.

Yesterday was no exception. We didn't even break even in sales. She did add about 20 people to her mailing list – always a valuable thing – and got people interested in hearing Ben speak when he's here in DC in October. But, financially, not a great day.

We'll be sitting down next week to talk about Life Essences, the Pathway Expo, and where she wants to go in the next year or two. One of the things I want to talk about is whether it makes sense to continue to rent a booth at the Expo.

It's a lively vibrant energy-rich environment (all the woo-woo you can imagine and then some!) but I'm not sure it's the right place to sell this product. It's a product that sells better one-on-one, when we already have a connection or relationship with someone.

We think everyone can benefit from the Life Essences. It turns out, though, that our belief and enthusiasm isn't enough. The consumers of the world have recognize that it can solve a problem for them and decide that they need it.

Massage therapy is like that. I've had more than one student answer the question “who is your target market” with “I'll massage anyone!” or “Everyone can benefit from massage!”. While technically true, it's not a helpful answer.

The truth is, we need to market massage to people who also know they need it, who also recognize that it can solve a problem for them. It doesn't matter if we believe in the gift of massage therapy with all our heart, mind, and soul. If the individual consumer doesn't see the value of it for themselves, they are not going to purchase it.

Part of our marketing can (and should) help educate the marketplace about how massage can be beneficial. But we can't talk people into getting a massage if it's not something they've identified as valuable. We can't make people see its value. You'll make yourself crazy trying to. You can only show them that it could be valuable to them. They get to decide whether they believe that or not.

 

The trick is recognizing the person who also sees the benefit and helping them find you. That's marketing. That's where you need to put your time and energy.