Marketing Re-Imagined: Esther Yong Of Homely Focus On How We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It More Authentic, Sustainable, And Promote More Satisfaction

An Interview With Drew Gerber

Listening to qualitative testimonials without information on how many people actually went through the material (and gave up or failed) gives a skewed idea of how “easy” success can be.

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 Esther Yong.

Esther Yong is a words driven digital marketer passionate about authentic living. She is the Founder & CEO of Homely Focus, an online publication that covers topics related to homely living.

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!

Hello Authority Magazine, thank you!

I am an entrepreneur in the early stages of building my authority site business. I was a “lurker” of entrepreneurial publications for years before taking the “leap of faith” to write online recently.

As a young lady growing up, I remember watching television and finding the advertisements shown between programs fascinating. There was a brief moment of creative magic where reality was suspended for a brief moment (think: mentos falling out of the sky before a first date).

I used to fall for marketing messages hook, line and sinker, and saw those moments as an “escape” from reality.

The line between reality and imagination blurred, being a naturally creative type.

Then, I had an unexpected awakening early on in my career. My proposed idea for a new project was being rejected as it was impractical and hadn’t been validated on the ground. What was this? Ideas needed to be validated in order not to waste business resources?

I traced back my embrace of impractical messaging I had been “sold” on and started practicing critical evaluation of those messages.

Today, thanks to the chances I have had to hone my critical thinking, I am better able to navigate the marketing messages that I see on a daily basis.

What lessons would you share with yourself if you had the opportunity to meet your younger self?

As a younger version of me, I missed out on opportunities due to an insatiable need for perfectionism and much overthinking. I would encourage myself to get out of my own head and learn from failing, experiencing the real world.

I would reassure her that although asian culture has overly strict standards on studies and behaviour, there is nothing wrong with you if you do not meet those standards every time.

Lastly, please learn to cook healthy meals for yourself. Health is wealth!

None of us are able to experience success without support along the way. Is there a particular person for whom you are grateful for that support to grow you from “there to here?” Can you share that story and why you are grateful for him or her?

In one of my previous jobs, I had the privilege of working under a HR director who took it upon herself to instruct and educate me on the ways of the corporate world (that I couldn’t get from poring over textbooks!)

She brought me to know a practical idea from an impractical one, how to present a case with data, facts and a workable solution for the many stakeholders involved. I am thankful she did not give up on me. I am also thankful for the skills she taught me that I use to this day.

What day-to-day structures do you have in place for you to experience a fulfilled life?

I do time blocking via my calendar in google sheets. I have a weekly, a monthly and a yearly view.

Healthwise, I also spend time to plan my day and organise my thoughts using Cognitive Based Therapy, CBT.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think it might help people?

I just completed brainstorming for a new set of reviews to be written for my authority site. Hopefully the reviews posted there will help people buy items that they really will find useful, and not land up in a pile for recycling.

Ok, thank you for sharing your inspired life. Now let’s discuss marketing. To begin, can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority on marketing?

As a digital marketer, I am in the trenches of digital marketing daily. I am exposed daily to the messaging in the online education industry and have felt the impact of inauthentic marketing first hand.

Throughout history, marketing has driven trade for humans. What role do you see that marketing played to get human societies where we are today?

Yes, I see marketing as one of the engines of economic growth, along with innovation, technological and industrial advancements.

Essentially marketing is getting the word out about what is available. Without marketing, how would we know what we are missing out on? It becomes complicated when we add on tactics such as scarcity, inciting jealousy, fear, to encourage people to “get on our boat”.

Employing too many tactics without keeping a clear focus on the original messaging can over time, lead to convoluting of the message.

As a marketer, I do my best to avoid convoluting in writing my messages.

I work in marketing so I’m very cognizant of this question. What role does marketing play in creating the human experience of “I don’t have enough” even when basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing are met?

Yes, this is an interesting question.

In this day and age, a video uploaded on Youtube will be watched by people all the way from the United States to Malaysia and Ghana.

With a diverse audience with a varied standard of living tuning in, their shelter can take on the form of a city condo complex, a suburban home, a tent in the desert. It could be a shelter needed during a sandstorm, a harsh winter or a breezy summer.

I think some marketers can end up sending generalised messages that can be interpreted in very different ways, depending on who is watching, and from where they are watching. As marketers, we need to be aware of this.

What responsibility do marketers have when it comes to people feeling that they aren’t enough?

Well insecurity is part of the human experience even before marketing came into the picture.

I think the responsibility of marketers is to validate their message with their consciences before the message is amplified through the various mediums of social media, google search and paid advertising.

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?

Following on from the discussion above, I do not think it is a problem if it is done tastefully bearing people’s feelings in mind.

I feel this becomes a problem when the marketing megaphone amplifies the insecurities of people as a way to use their insecurities against them to pressure them to take action. (This “setup” is starting to sound vaguely like the one you faced with that bully back in school?)

They want to sell their wares as quickly as possible and do not wait for you to make up your mind about it.

Sure, you may be cajoled into buying the product but at the cost of chipping away at your self esteem and causing emotional pain. I would argue a healthy self esteem is worth more in the long term.

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.

I am Chinese and I grew up watching both English and Mandarin advertisements on the local television channels in Singapore, a multilingual country.

What I noticed watching advertisements targeting Chinese here was: they love plugging the cultural storyline of filial piety into storylines.

An often seen story line is:

1. “Eat [advertised food] together as a family!”
2. Subliminal message: have the shared bonding experience of how good it tastes!” Cue visuals of grandparent, parent and child with smiling faces.

I guess they are selling the desire for a time when all generations in the family can agree on one thing such as “this food is good!” (when generations are finding it hard to find agreement on many topics). It also plays to the culturally accepted asian mindset that families eat together.

P.S. Please don’t get offended if you are Chinese and disagree… just sharing from my perspective!

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 of feeling safe, secure, and knowing that we matter? Based on your experience or research can you please share “Five Ways We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It More Authentic, Sustainable, And Promote More Satisfaction”?

1. Adjust Metrics, Esteem Accuracy, Verify Claims.

As I am still at the startup stage as an entrepreneur, I will speak mostly about my experience navigating the online education industry. I did a ton of research to find reputable courses to build up my digital marketing skills, and here are some trends I have come across while doing that.

2. Marketers to Adjust Marketing Messages to be Accurate not Sensational.

I was researching copywriting courses recently. In that span of time, I saw many courses which touted solely the earning potential of a copywriter, with headlines such as “earn up to 6 figures a year as a copywriter!”. I was intrigued for a couple of days till I figured out this selling out to money was not what I wanted long term.

I much preferred authentic headlines that accurately portrayed the skillset that is needed to be a successful copywriter in the long term, something along the lines of “love writing? Great at English? Consider a career as a copywriter! Takes real skill and effort!”

There are many ways to “earn 6 figures” and touting that as a benefit attracts people who are in it for the money instead of enjoying the process.

3. Marketers to Adjust Marketing Metrics to Reflect Humanity.

I was searching for examples of marketing dashboards for tracking progress of Homely Focus recently. After scrolling through samples of various dashboards, I saw the same metrics repeated; the percentage of conversions, cash value generated, content click through rate, brand awareness rate. The success of a marketing campaign is often determined by hard numbers, and those numbers in the funnel who took the action they wanted them to.

Applied in the case of the online education industry, using this mathematical judgment of success will measure if someone spent money to purchase the course.

Not many metrics focused on product-buyee fit, cultural impact or (realistic) reasons for not making the decision.

Attention could be given to what is happening outside the funnel, or the “osmosis” effect of people moving into/and out of the funnel. How else are our audiences’ mindsets being affected by the marketing materials viewed? The effects of marketing on society that happen outside the funnel could be better studied to hold marketers to a standard of socially responsible marketing.

4. Consumers to Practice Active, Critical Thinking.

In the online education industry, the “rags to riches” story is prevalent in marketing stories with little verification. It is easy to photoshop a lifestyle into looking real. We may be thrilled by the illusion it creates especially if we do not have many opportunities to interact with this lifestyle in real life.

To be authentic, brands need to be willing to be presented with points of view alternate to theirs and to engage in a thoughtful, grown up discussion on the greater picture. Critical thinking by both parties is needed.

Having grown up in the age of Netflix and Disney, “woke” advertising, and parents who were doting but seldom around, Gen Z and Millennials (myself included) are seemingly savvy but lack critical judgement, perhaps seen by how willingly we give up our hard earned money on certain unverified purchasing decisions.

Two way interaction before making purchasing decisions is a must, as well as is validation of marketing claims.

5. Review Marketer’s Claims Statistically.

It is easy for a starry eyed wannabe entrepreneur as I was to believe that the statistically impossible “fairytale” stories influencers find themselves a part of can also happen to them, and become especially susceptible to spending one’s dollar on what the influencer touts. I used to trust testimonials posted about one’s course and service.

Then, someone shared this convincing mathematical argument with me:

1. Imagine your admired influencer has 50,000 people who sign up for their course. Of this, a reasonable success rate of 0.3% of people would be 150 people (According to various sources on google, 0.3% is the rate at which basketballers are selected to enter the NBA).
2. If the influencer has 20, even 50 testimonials of how great his course is, it is reasonable that these people would have been successful, or were already successful before taking his course.
3. Listening to qualitative testimonials without information on how many people actually went through the material (and gave up or failed) gives a skewed idea of how “easy” success can be.

I learned to add a quantitative lens into my mental toolkit when examining testimonials put up by marketers.

Influencers to Verify the Stories of Other Influencers.

Sometimes, we need voices who are well known to speak authoritatively on marketing claims. Their opinions carry weight with their audience. A Youtuber who does this regularly is Coffeezilla, who regularly verifies the marketing claims of online course education “gurus”, such as Dan Lok.

Two other reliable sources of online marketing course reviews I personally use are eBizFacts.com and the CourseRanks YouTube channel.

To conclude, the marketing industry is many voices analysing, refining and improving the storylines of other marketers. Those with true integrity will stand the test of rigorous fact checking and analysis.

For you personally, if you have all your basic needs met, do you feel you have enough in life?

Yes. Financial prosperity is only one aspect of the life equation. Also I feel the amount you earn can vary, and the other aspect is managing the money you do earn appropriately. I have had seasons in life where money was tight but we covered all the necessary bases (by the grace of God).

Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that have inspired you to live with more joy in life?

Yes, a favourite from the Mental Health department is: Re-train Your Brain in 7 weeks: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy by Seth Gillihan.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

It would be great if there is a widespread acceptance of a global marketing code of conduct that delves into values, ethics as the “gold standard” of marketing aside from delivering hard numbers.

Certain professions require their members to adhere to strict codes of ethics. Although marketing is creative by nature, it would be great if there were widespread support of certain things that are okay to do and not okay to do.

What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?

At present I contribute regularly to my own blog at Homely Focus.

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.