Marketing Re-Imagined: Author Joe Gulesserian On How We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It More Authentic, Sustainable, And Promote More Satisfaction
An Interview With Drew Gerber
Show Honesty in your core proposition, and this can only be done by having a great product to start with, especially when credibility can be verified through reviews. Your physical graphical-textual design should be minimalist. Your advertising should be reversed into your service or product so as to create an authentic harmony. The authenticity of advertising should be reverse-engineered from your product, not the other way around, and in the background, romance the consumer with connectivity to their actionable touch points, both conscious and subliminal.
From an objective standpoint, we are living in an unprecedented era of abundance. Yet so many of us are feeling unsatisfied. Why are we seemingly so insatiable? Do you feel that marketing has led to people feeling unsatisfied and not having enough in life? If so, what actions can marketers take to create a world where people feel that they have enough, and they are enough? Can we re-imagine what marketing looks like and how it makes people feel? In this interview series, we are talking to experts in marketing and branding to discuss how we might re-imagine marketing to make it more authentic, sustainable, and promote more satisfaction. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Joe Gulesserian.
Joe Gulesserian is an entrepreneur from the Consumer Packaged Goods industry — has a multisensory connection with Brands and Design, where he has built and brought to market Health & Beauty Brands with global reach that has sent him around much of the world. He holds an MBA from Edinburgh Business School, a former adjunct professor of business management studies where he taught Global Marketing — Finance — Statistics. He is the author of the book “The Practical MBA on Economics”, What they do and don’t teach you at business school.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to know how you got from “there to here.” Inspire us with your backstory!
My plan in my spent youth was to take over the world (with mixed success, I might add), so I originally started studying Engineering since I had a trade in precision tooling, which was not for me. In my mid-20s, I formed a company that specialized in buying and selling distressed cosmetics. From there it evolved into handling US Brands of Health & Beauty for Canada, and at one point I introduced the first popularly priced cosmetics for women of color. I went back and did my MBA in my 30s, taught in College for a couple of years and started creating Rebel Brands that challenged the Nationals, then progressed to handling Barbasol in Canada. In addition to this, I am creating a series of Books called “The Practical MBA–What They Do & Don’t Teach You in Business School”, as the first one was launched last year on Economics, and am currently writing “The Guerilla Guide for Entrepreneurs”.
Can you please tell us about your typical day? What day-to-day structures do you have in place for you to experience a fulfilled life?
My day usually starts at 6:30 where I spend an hour reading a book, I then start writing for about 2 hours, after I move my attention to running my CPG business, which might include contacting customers, sales agents, manufacturers, developing design and formulations. Once the evening comes, I send e-mails out to my overseas contacts and enjoy watching a series of video blogs from business to history.
What lessons would you share with yourself if you had the opportunity to meet your younger self?
I would treasure my spent youth more to better respect the finiteness, glory and tragedy of life, understand to even better obtain knowhow from the older people that were in my life, while ignoring the irrelevant clatter of the madness of the World (today it is worse with the social media and its digital Gulags). But most importantly, I would be more careful as to whom I would associate with, as bad company can have you spinning your wheels and take your eyes off the game.
Ok, thank you for sharing that. Now let’s discuss marketing. To begin, can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority on marketing?
I have almost always worked for myself in the Consumer-Packaged Goods industry, specifically Health & Beauty Brands. With my background in creatives and visuality, it has led me to develop Rebel Brands that have sold millions of units, including MAX Body Sprays and EuroStyle® Herbal Care™. When you show up to the coliseum with your own coin and not someone else’s, you acquire a visceral connection to the consumer, because if you lose your mojo, it is your money that is at peril. As mentioned earlier, I started with generic price Brands and then graduated to handling Barbasol in Canada. I have extensive experience in bringing Brands into global markets as my travels have taken me to Latin America, the Far East, Gulf Region (MENA). Also, I taught in college global marketing, data research and finance.
Many 21st-century marketing professionals in a capitalistic society will discuss solving human “pain points” as a way to sell products, services, and other wares successfully. In your opinion or experience, has aggravating pain points led to more pain? Can you explain what you mean?
How history considers our moment on this place called the Earth is often expressed into what we have created, starting with our wants and/or an inventor’s imagination transgressing into needs. The free markets traditionally have been excellent at identifying pain points and then selling against them, some with authenticity and some with more unscrupulous means.
Take the case of dishwashers that really came to market in the 1950s. Behind this consumer innovation lay a sense of guilt with men watching their wives and mothers toil in the kitchen. Hence, the first market proposition in the early adopter stage that subliminally stated, “If a man had compassion for their wife, they could express this by purchasing a dishwasher”, as it was a luxury at first. Then housewives who saw other women with this luxury turned a want into a need; by the 1960s mass adoption occurred. And in a very real sense, by the late 1960s, the narrative was that, “If he really cared for you, he would have bought you a dishwasher”. Finally, as women poured into the workforce in ever larger numbers in the 1960s-70s, the dishwasher became a staple due to the phenomena of time poverty in the two-earner family. So, in this instance, technological and marketing innovation reduced pain, both short and long-term, while improving the quality of life. Only the free markets could have delivered this.
Switching to different technologies, take the case of smartphones that were the commercial advent of the Canadian Company Blackberry, when in 2002 they introduced the Blackberry 5810. Incidentally, it was not brought to market by doing consumer marketing research, it was brought to market by seeing the future. Hence, did the Blackberry smartphone relieve pain by connecting us to our PCs at the time? And did rapid-fire instant communications first introduced in the business world foster connectedness, economic efficiencies, and related productivity gains? It could be argued comfortably that the answer is initially yes, and in my case, I was a late-early adopter as opposed to being an innovator on the adoption curve. Why? Because I felt that returning e-mails in the heat of the moment without thought could foster interpersonal tension by aggravating matters, as it might be more prudent to give thought before sending an e-mail as opposed to acting impulsively during battle in the Roman Coliseum.
Later, as Android and Apple smartphones dominated the market, it went from a want into a necessity, both in business and personal lives, with the advent of many messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, e-mails, and the like. These social media apps, though titillating, foster emotional impulses leading to “sender’s remorse” as one might reconsider the abdication of self-control. The end result is digital spears are being thrown in a tap-fest that resembles an MMA battle, as they vie for momentary glory during the pursuit of being supreme royalty of the digital Gulag, but this comes with consequences. Why? Because, once one taps or presses the send button, the damage is done. After all, isn’t this why God invented the draft box?
The phenomena of the mass adoption of smartphones have put us on to a digital leash of sorts, creating a painful self-centered world, where productivity gains have been offset by idle phone addiction, but without the formality of heroin. It is this large pain-point that was caused by marketing, as we are now so connected, yet so alone. Hence, since I have lived through both worlds, it gives me a more balanced perspective with respect to these technologies. In some respects, it has alleviated pain through productivity and convenience, but in many respects, it has created more pain by the prostitution of one’s personal privacy to big data and aimless surfing, without understanding the finite nature of human life. And, sadly, in the new normal, no one notices.
Different cultures view trade/marketing differently. While some may focus on “pain-points” others may focus on “purpose-points”. How do other cultures differ in how they approach marketing? Please give examples or studies you may know about.
Different cultures do view trade/marketing differently, specifically in least developed countries, because of socio-economic conditions. To explain this further, in poorer countries, the culture is more hardened to pain as a way of life as opposed to Western cultures, which have been indulged in plenty. Hence, in the lower to medium segment which I saw in markets such as Peru and Ecuador, consumerism is held back by price elasticity derived from lower, if nonexistent, disposable income into purpose points. A good example was my Zone Body Spray Brand that was used for purpose points in developing markets. Here is an example of a commercial in Spanish that included my Zone Body Spray Brand in Peru. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkNc_6pv01Q
In the West however, with the adoption of body sprays for guys, it addressed a pain-point in a tongue-in-cheek way by associating it with a “must have”gear for young men to have game.
Looking at a different scenario, many foreign markets are intrigued with Western Brands, and this is the case in the Gulf Region (GCC) and North African markets, where the purchase of my EuroStyle® Herbal Care™ “Made in Canada” haircare line exudes a different perception. Why? Because in the eyes of the consumer, it is made from pure Canadian water, exudes the personal local customer’s aspiration of having Made in the West Brands that simply is more seductive than local or Made in China offerings. It is perhaps the dream of the West that is being sold, and this is metamorphized into prestige and a sense of self in foreign markets. In certain products, country of origin still plays a big role in the psyche of the consumer.
Okay, fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview: It seems as if we have never stopped to question marketing. In your opinion, how can marketing professionals be more responsible for how their advertising shapes our human experience? Based on your experience and your area of expertise can you please share “Five Ways We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It More Authentic, Sustainable, And Promote More Satisfaction”? Please share a story or an example for each if you can.
1 . Speak to the Soul of the consumer, travel into their psyche and connect with how they both rationally and emotionally connect with purchasing propositions in advertising messaging both in short and longer pre-rolls. To do this, ensure your advertising is honest and seamlessly communicates to the compelling design of the brand and functionalism that lifts the soul, touches the psyche and makes your product a customer’s rational and emotional choice. Many people cannot remember the day of focus groups as producers watched customers use their products through two-way mirrors. It was difficult to really understand the “Latent Manifest Variables” of the consumer (what they really mean). Today with social media, you can measure the authenticity of your messaging for feedback by showing test ads on Instagram or Twitter before a rollout, and some creators do this for a nominal price.
2 . Show Honesty in your core proposition, and this can only be done by having a great product to start with, especially when credibility can be verified through reviews. Your physical graphical-textual design should be minimalist. Your advertising should be reversed into your service or product so as to create an authentic harmony. The authenticity of advertising should be reverse-engineered from your product, not the other way around, and in the background, romance the consumer with connectivity to their actionable touch points, both conscious and subliminal.
3 . With inflation and a recession in the backdrop, price realism plays a big role. The quintessential question is this, “How can I offer more for less, and simultaneously keep and enhance the consumers’ sense of self, while not undressing their psyche of being reminded after the purchase that they saved money?” This provides authenticity, functionalism, and aspirational escalation. For example, if a new Indie line of running shoes is launched that costs 35% less than Nike, advertising can create a narrative that you can jump higher to find your dreams while feeling unique. Why? Because you are not part of the crowd, as you walk to your own beat. The lesson here, if you advertise on price, know the balance between keeping one’s sense of self and its relationship to the purchase price and outward projection of the consumer. Brand X — join the Rebellion!
4 . On advertising pre-rolls, we have to start the first 10 seconds with a combination of authenticity and seduction that gives a reason to believe while enamoring the imagination, and if you fascinate the viewer, they will often stay tuned for the full commercial. Let me give you an example, “Imagine a world where the air is clean, water is drinkable, hope is within your grasp, the solidness of the past allows us to progress into a fascinating future. A place where you can see the fragility of the earth, and life from another planet that lets you peak into the universe…”. You can then pan to a camera shot of 200 people creating a circle of hope. In the end, the narrator states that one day we will be traveling in space to new frontiers that will change the human perspective, and then asks the question, “So, what type of future will we have?”
5 . Tell Stories with your Brand and make them authentic, relatable, and down to earth, stories that touch the rational and emotional elements of the consumer. Here are some ideas; tell the story of how your family business started from humble beginnings and the people who created the service or product that might be part of your daily life, supported with black and white pictures of a dream that became a reality — people have great compassion for authenticity. Or, how about telling a story of how the new EV car was created, in the way of a series of Ads, for example, come meet the industrial designer, then follow it up with a mini-interview with the chief engineer, then on the 3rd part of the series, talk to the people who assemble the car. Stories like these are authentic, down to earth, sustainable and create consumer affection for both the company and its Brands.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that have inspired you about marketing differently?
To get ideas for the Social Media platforms I watch Adam Erhart on YouTube. I flip through Azure magazine, as I am enamored with industrial design and minimalism.
To get a feel for creatives, I binge watched for the second time “Mad Men” to revisit advertising and power of words before the Internet. I especially loved how in 1965 the Kodak Carousel was introduced as pictorial memories, which caused pain to the consumer, according to Don Draper, who was the “Ad Man” genius of New York’s Fifth Avenue, and in the end, that’s what they sold, after all, memories are painful as they deliver the passage of time. Of course, the entry of Honda into the US market was another segment that I indelibly remember. The Mad Men series is a must watch if one wants to understand, while getting a visceral feel for the history of modern advertising and creatives.
I read Ad Age to keep up on advertising’s creatives and pre-rolls. For Amazon marketing, I have read many of Dale Roberts’ books and watched his vlog.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement to reimagine marketing, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would reimagine marketing by changing the proposition equation, in other words, what is the correct balance of entertainment, authenticity, and especially offering an attainable premium Brand that resonates? In other words, I believe that in the premium and prestige category, pricing has excluded much of the market as Brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and the like, project a message of elitism. I could even accuse Apple and Tesla of doing the same, as they create a combination of virtue, fashion, exclusivity, and so on. Though in the case of Apple, they have created economic attainability. What people are buying in the premium category is not so much functionalism, but their societal status.
What if we can offer the romanticism of the American dream, maintain emotional gratification, and while delivering passionate and rational aspirations? What if we say in our messaging in a tactful and intrinsic way that by purchasing my Brand, you can be part of the dream and participate in the romanticism, while delivering economic attainment? And, instead of talking about inclusion, let’s deliver it and tie it in with the dream. Instead of talking about inclusion, as some shallow vogue statement, why not create it in the soul and presence of the mind?
When I create new design, or consider Ads, I often re-shuffle the equation below that I created about 10 years ago:
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
I can be found on the following platforms:
LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-gulesserian-962a5515/
Twitter: JoeG@JoeGulesserian
Instagram: joeg_author
I also have a have free newsletter on my book publishing site: www.practicalmba.ca
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About The Interviewer: For 30 years, Drew Gerber has been inspiring those who want to change the world. Drew is the CEO of Wasabi Publicity, Inc., a full-service PR agency lauded by PR Week and Good Morning America. Wasabi Publicity, Inc. is a global marketing company that supports industry leaders, change agents, unconventional thinkers, companies and organizations that strive to make a difference. Whether it’s branding, traditional PR or social media marketing, every campaign is instilled with passion, creativity and brilliance to powerfully tell their clients’ story and amplify their intentions in the world.
