Sit Back, Relax and Let E-Bay Do the Marketing For You

If you position a product or offering correctly, just sit back, relax and let eBay do the trick. eBay is the hero to some of the smartest marketing divisions and public figures in the world. This includes the technology giants (smart phones included) sports figures and their respective memorabilia, motorcycle manufacturers, celebrities and more. Since I love marketing, I will attempt to put 2 + 2 together for you as to why eBay is amazing media. That is, if it is used correctly. If used in correctly, it could have devastating marketing and advertising consequences. For instance, if you are a large technology company and your organization just put out a new product and it could not sell on eBay at a mark-up, you can assure yourself that bad media is just around the corner.

So why is the site so effective for marketing departments? First, eBay is free advertising and the marketing department does not have to do any additional work and, therefore the company does not need to hire more people or call in more vendors. Second, eBay has a huge domino effect. We all know basic economics; as the demand of something continues on a steady rise, so does the price of a product. There is a direct relationship between the two. However, marketing firms at large companies are very good at washing their hands of these incredibly unethical price mark-ups. Again, while they are still relaxed in their chairs, they call their PR vendor and tell them to spread the word that the company discourages the reselling of their product at a premium price. After all, they say that this practice is "cheating the consumer." A quick note as to why we are not discussing celebrities more - most are not intelligent enough to play this game, however this is not a hard and fast rule. No matter what these firms say, their actions point to the fact that they want the online action media exposure and the price boost on eBay. If they didn't, they would just make more of the product. The "we only had so many" excuse is now the marketing equivalent of "why did the chicken cross the road?"

Furthermore, the more the product stays online, the more intrigued people are going to be by the product, the more they are going to blog about it and the more times they are going to visit the company website.

Let's get to the coup de grace of eBay marketing. When does the hockey puck cross the red line? Well, the real homerun is when the news stations pick this up. This is almost like finishing a football game with a 50yrd touchdown pass. This is especially advantageous for technology companies which are spending their marketing and advertising budgets geared to the 25 to 40 year old crowd.

The main benefit of eBay media is that the news and "talking" gets the older generation involved. To the company and their respective marketing department, this is reaching out to a different demographic free of charge. From a monetary standpoint, there is no advantage in costly advertising in the attempt to attempt to sell this age group. There is no real return on investment. So, these companies let the online auction sites get the media interested and it is a domino effect from there. Then, the product becomes a hit, the firm apologizes claiming they misread what the initial demand would be and promise to do their best next time.

Ken Sundheim is President and Founder of KAS Placement "KAS Sales Recruiter"

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