破晓 by 南拳妈妈

300th post

KTV the other nite was called off. So I went home watching anime until Meow Meow "dragged" me out to lim kopi, or rather, lim chocolate since none of us ordered kopi, all chocolate. RR came after her church, and Birdy was uncontactable, as usual. Kinda lifts up my P(ost)MS mood.

My blog seems screwed up with the occasional pop-ups and the blogger bar going out of alignment. Duh. Jus live with it, I cant do anything to the root cause.

Ya I shall blog abt multi-tier marketing I was mentioning the other day.

I was with Birdy (surprisingly out of all ppl bcos she always in office till wee hrs, thou she made me wait one hr for her.) at Civic Plaza with our MOS croquettes and watever stuff after getting my MMC card at Far East.

This middle-aged soft spoken guy came up with a folder and stuff. Starts with the usual,"Hi do u have a MINUTE to spare?" I was the hesitant me as usual dealing with ppl who approaches with this kinda question. Either he's a surveyor, or an insurance agent, or a salesman. It couldnt be a min, and I was chatting with Birdy over some stuff. Since the Bird agreed to his ONE MINUTE proposal, I had to listen.

He asked, "If you have the financial ability to go for a long vacation right now, will u do it?" Seriously I dunno wat the hell he is trying to ask.
"Do you have the financial ability to go for a vacation?"
"Are you able to go for a long vacation? (Work-wise)"
"Are you healthy enuff to go for a long vacation?"
"If I can go for a long vacation, will u go? (Who wun?)"
Where is the destination anyway!?!?!? I was trying to anticipate the future of the conversation, as with all pesty ppl, n get all my guai lan answers ready. I conclude he's a salesman, but i still dunno wat the heck he trying to sell. Sounds like financial services to me.

Then he starts to tok abt the company status, reputation, blah blah. Listed 3rd best small entreprise in the world. Takes out a health brochure, blah blah again. Uhur! Health products. I was getting VERY BORED, wanting to ask him to get straight to the point. Then he toks abt financial stuff.

It was more than 5 min and he toks very slowly and deliberately si wen like dat. 5 min and no clear idea of wat he's selling. I got impatient. I retorted, "Ok, so WHAT are you selling?" I think he was surprised as he's not finished with his script. He starts to fumble a bit. Then he starts his script on his business. Explains wat is he is doing, how promoting the product to others can bring money to u.

SA: "Well, u see, our products will benefit your health, its all natural products, no side effects and it doesnt cost much."
Me: "If I have the money to buy ur products. I might as well use the money and go for your so-called long vacation rite?"
SA pauses for a while. He met his nemesis, aka me.
SA: "Y not u come down to my office and u'll be able to understand abt our product and business more? We have a talk at 7pm tmr..."
Me: "Erm.. I noe wat is multi-tier marketing. I was a marketing student." (I cut him short)
Sales Agent(SA): "Oh! So u already noe our business. Its great if u come for the talk since u already understand our nature of business. We hope you can come down at 7pm tmr.."
Me: "Erm.. We're still in office at 7pm."
SA: "How abt other days??" Insisting.
Me: "Nope, not free, very busy, not interested also. No time."
SA: "No time!?! Well u see, no time is a psychological thing. With our products, it'll make u more refreshed everyday, with lesser sleep..."
I was very irritated liao. I'm taking psychology at this moment, no need u to tell me wat rubbish unproven psychology stuff. If psychology can really make u no need to sleep, there wun be any doctors ard. Thinking, "I'm not sick, I no need to sleep" will prevent sickness. HAHAHA!
Me: "Nah its ok. We dun need those. (In a softer voice)I'm taking psychology now."
SA: "Oh in dat case, can I leave my namecard with u so dat u can call me if u need my products?"
Me: "Ok."
SA: "Would u mind giving me a contact so dat I can inform u of upcoming talks?"
Me: "Err, no thanks."
SA: "Ok then, have a nice day, blah blah blah."
FINALLY he'S GONE after MORE THAN 10 min. Tok abt ONE MIN ehh.. I chucked the card to the Bird.

If u're wondering at tis time where the stupid bird when thru'out the conversation, she received a call, and left me to deal with the guy.

As I'm typing this, my ah ma's getting brainwashed by my uncle, who himself is a promoter of some health product. So timely. Actually most of my extended family had been infiltrated/contaminated. My ah ma swears by their products.
Ah Ma: "Li siong hong arh? Ki jiak Orh Leng" (She calls the tablets orange.)
Me: "Mai lah. Wa wo yoh."

Its Clarisil for me. In fact, I have a whole array of medicine for flu. Clarisil, Panadol, Robitussin, etc etc, even the herbal tea thing. I tried the Orh Leng. Not effective. And its jus a health supplement, not targeting at flu only.

Or when I'm going suntan.
Ah Ma: "Wah chong siao dak hor li." (some anti-bacterial stuff)
Me: "Mian lah. Wa mai lim hih di eh zhui." (I call it fish tank water, bcos it smells like it.)

Multi-tier marketing mainly uses personal experience as their way of reaching out to the target market. Most commonly u'll hear stuff like, "U know got this fella who was already on his deathbed, and now recovered after taking our product." Or dat fella recovered from terminal stage of cancer. Makes u kinda ponder abt its credibility. Y ur product so miracle can save a dying fella dat doctors are unable to save? Then they get ppl to share their real life experience (true or false we dunno) with the product, like spreading a religion.

To my generation, who had been brought up with TVs and stuff, and with the stronger educational background, will tend to think that anything by multi-tier marketing is not as good as it seems. They'll think, if its so good, y isnt it being advertised on TV and stuff? And it isnt prescribed by the doctor, dunno will have side effects anot.

To the older generations, they totally buy everything dat is by personal experience, as there's ppl who had already tried it. No matter wat the product is, no matter how expensive it is, they'll get it if they presume it can heal their nagging aches. Dats y old ppl are more susceptible to cons and younger generations, from the news report, are more wary of ppl who comes up selling products claiming to do wonders.

Bottles of medicine costing from $40-$100++. Most transactions extends over $200. Young ppl are not willing to pay tis kinda amt when they have their cars/flats/loan payment/hp bills/chionging budget, etc etc to worry abt.

To all multi-tier marketers. GET UR TARGET AUDIENCE RITE! Yuppies/teenagers/young adults are not as willing to spend money on stuff which are unknown to them, no matter how credible u may sound. Try reaching them from the tv or media 1st. Focus ur marketing strategies on those aunties in the market. They're more acceptable to this kinda stuff and they have more financial capablity to buy.

Give me Extrim anyday.