The techniques of street-wise marketing
posted by kry in booksI am currently reading a book, The Hard Sell, which is about the techniques used by pitchers to sell their products at the market.
It is written by two sociologists and it is an account of their studies on the language and lessons of market selling. Their studies started by coincidence, after their encounter with a pitcher trying to sell his products in quite an original way. It was then that they decided to start studying this type of selling and the techniques used by pitchers. They went round markets all over the country and recorded the encounters between the pitchers and the customers, where goods are exchanged. Wherever they went and whoever they studied they found more similarities than differences between pitchers.
In the book, they’ve written about the various methods pitchers use to sell their goods. A typical market pitching routine is usually as follows:
- attracting and building an audience
- describing and demonstrating the goods
- building up the value of the goods on offer and announcing the selling price
- securing commitments and encouraging people to buy immediately
It is quite an interesting book and the techniques used are explained in detail, with extracts of conversations between the pitchers and the potential customers during the exchange.
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Hmmm, reminds me a lot of teleshopping. I imagine that it’s harder for the pitcher on TV, because he can’t really gauge the watchers’ reaction and modify his pitch accordingly. Although on the other hand he gets a much larger potential audience so maybe it balances out
Actually the book has also got a chapter on teleshopping:) But I haven’t read it yet as it’s the last chapter
Kemm jiena tajba, heheheh. I had a business studies module last year and I really enjoyed it (got an A, a rarity for me!). One of my favourite parts was about branding, but we didn’t do much on pitching. Fascinating though.
Yes very interesting indeed:) I got this book from the Mosta library and I tried to buy it from the internet but I can’t find it. It includes conversations between the pitchers and the customers and also the techniques used are explained. Very interesting to read:) Business related subjects are my favorite, especially marketing and human resource management..that’s why I chose Commerce at University:)