Lessons of a Lipstick Queen by Poppy King

Author:Poppy King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2008-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

In all of these instances and many others, you’re trying to send the message that you can be an asset and provide a benefit of some kind. As you’ll no doubt discover, the more conscious you are of the message you are trying to send, the more effective you will be.

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LESSON 34: Keep it real

When setting out to become a marketing expert, make sure to stay a human being. Never forget that your targets are people first and an audience second. Whether you want to use marketing to get the attention of consumers or the attention of your boss, whether your audience consists of one person or one hundred thousand, you’re always dealing with human beings just like you.

There are a great deal of helpful marketing theories, buzzwords, and formulas. While these are all very interesting to consider, they are no substitute for your own thoughts and feelings. A marketing expert is really just another way of describing someone who is very trusting of their intuition. Someone who is so keenly aware of their own reactions to people, places, and situations, that they become very good at predicting the reactions of others.

When you focus on understanding yourself and pay attention to your own thoughts and feelings, you naturally become more understanding and compassionate of others. As that happens, it becomes easier and easier to design messages that will produce the reactions you seek.

My Story

About four years into my business, the reputation and legend of the lipsticks had spread to places as diverse as South Africa, Russia, and India. I had all sorts of approaches from people who wanted to represent the brand in these countries, but the most aggressive approach came from a very placid corner of the world—Canada. One day my brother received a phone call from a guy in Montreal who told him he had registered the Poppy brand name in Canada. If we ever wanted to do business there, he said we had to partner with him. No, it wasn’t Tony Soprano.

As it turned out, this rather kneecap-breaking style of introducing himself was really just this guy’s way of showing how much he believed. My brother explained that we didn’t have the resources to open new markets and that we were actually in the process of looking for an injection of funding before we could consider new opportunities.

“In that case,” he said, “come to Canada and meet with me and my dad. We have so many connections. Perhaps we can help you.” After a little research into him and his family, that was exactly what we did. On the next business trip to meet with Barneys, I included a stop in Canada.

He picked us up from the airport and whisked us off to his family’s immense weekend estate. The plan was to spend the weekend brainstorming on the strategy of the brand and then to brainstorm about finding investment. Around lunchtime the earth began to tremble as an ominous whirring noise became louder and louder. But it was just his dad.

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