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Booth Babes

2014-01-17 20:32:22.557165+00 by Dan Lyke 8 comments

Spencer Chen: Booth Babes Don’t Work:

Well, I do: Booth babes do NOT convert.

How do I know? Well, I actually split-tested this a few years ago and the results were indisputable. If you have invested in a trade show to generate new business, using booth babes is a lead conversion boat anchor.

(By way of this IO9 article)

I've gotten to wonder just how much we're dragged around by the guys in sport jackets with stylish haircuts, how much of a drag they are on the economy, how much the current notions of marketing and sales are just screwing us as an economy.

Or maybe I'm seeing the fnords too damned much recently.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Invention and Design Consumerism and advertising Work, productivity and environment Marketing Boats Machinery Economics ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2014-01-18 03:00:50.551245+00 by: meuon

Maybe you aren't seeing the Fnords clearly enough from a big enough picture perspective.

#Comment Re: made: 2014-01-18 04:30:16.460738+00 by: dexev

Noticing that both of those articles are well decorated with photos of said booth babes -- there's something about the culture?

#Comment Re: made: 2014-01-18 11:35:07.096107+00 by: stevesh

"I've gotten to wonder just how much we're dragged around by the guys in sport jackets with stylish haircuts, how much of a drag they are on the economy, how much the current notions of marketing and sales are just screwing us as an economy."

You only have to look at all local (and some national) auto dealership advertising to see this effect in action. Bad sport jackets mostly, but still ...

#Comment Re: made: 2014-01-18 17:21:05.318822+00 by: Dan Lyke

dexev - yes: that.

stevesh - yeah, car dealerships. We seem to have lost the bad sport jacket thing from consumer electronics stores, we're down to blue polo shirts and Amazon is kicking their collective asses. B2B sales is still dominated by this, and since I work in a cube farm with lots of people doing tech support for their customers, I know there are a crapload of stories of those haircuts causing all sorts of economic friction.

meuon - I have this debate with myself all the time. And, yes, I don't know how to put the fnords out there myself.

#Comment Re: made: 2014-01-19 02:38:02.942885+00 by: TheSHAD0W

meuon - seeing... what?

#Comment Re: made: 2014-01-19 08:18:25.578634+00 by: meuon [edit history]

Tossing an idea out, after a visit from Ryan and Amy. They are both working for a fairly large online retailer, Amy is in charge of sales and customer service (a room full of people answering sales/support calls and emails).

Idea: Most of the population (including decision makers of large corporate purchases) is much denser than we realize, and it takes a sales force at just above their level to deal with them well. Smarter people are frustrated by the mundanes and do a bad job at sales with them.

Side note: Amy is -very- bright, I don't want to infer bad things on the future daughter in law...

#Comment Re: made: 2014-01-19 14:15:35.775438+00 by: mkelley

Steve, That's why I like Carmax. Just average guys, not really sales people they're just guides in the process.

#Comment Re: made: 2014-01-19 22:20:44.779996+00 by: spc476

I sold my old car at CarMax last July (for $500). In November, I received a certified letter from a towing company, saying that my car (that I sold to CarMax in July) was in storage and that I owed them (the towing comapany) upwards of $700 in charges.

When I called the towing company and told them that I no longer owned the car, they didn't care. The title (according to the state) was still in my name. The towing company refused to call CarMax, and CarMax refused to call the towing company. It was up to me to resolve the issue (by faxing the receipts to the towing company---I don't own a fax, and even though I work in telephony, the company I work for didn't even have a fax! What a @#$@#$@! pain).

I bring this up, because I'm not sure who's at fault here (except for the poor joker who was arrested in my old car for committing a crime; what crime, I do not know, but hey! My old car was potentially used in the commission of a crime) but the fact that nearly six months *AFTER* I sold a car to CarMax the title was *STILL* in my name says something about CarMax (or the state bureaucracy).