Skip to main content

Why I love marketing

If you've been around me long enough, you probably know how much I love good deals. I've been an avid follower of Dealnews and Spoofee for years, and this year I started sharing the good news of Groupon and Livingsocial with more passion than I evangelize about Jesus.

A few weeks ago I publicized on my facebook about a local skydiving deal, encouraging "anyone whose life bucket list includes skydiving to take this chance" and purchase the deal. I didn't understand the power of social media until a friend walked up to me the next day and told me that after seeing my "exhortation", he and fifteen of his friends purchased the deal together and will all be jumping out of a plane in September. I was in shock but also stunned--what if I shared about Jesus with such passion and enthusiasm?? Would fifteen others buy the product I'm selling with just as much excitement?? What if I shamelessly and convincingly "sold" Jesus on my facebook?

Yesterday on a rare *open* Monday night, I had the chance to grab dinner with a few of my bschool friends who work in Ann Arbor. In typical NY fashion, I suggested going to the Blue Tractor for $2.95 double-stacked burgers (get the coupon here). It was a great deal but more than that I've really enjoyed my outings with Amanda, Anna, and Alex this year because as different as we are (we weren't really friends in school), one unifying thread is our love for marketing.

Marketing is all about understanding people and developing strategies to most effectively sell them a product, service, or idea that you believe in. I LOVE MARKETING because it doesn't conclude at the end of the business day or is confined to spaces. Wherever I am, whoever I am with, whatever I am doing, I am always trying to understand people around me and how to most effectively present them a product, service, or idea that I believe will benefit them. It just so happens that sometimes that thing is a great new restaurant, a great coupon, or a great trust in a God that's bigger than our circumstances.

A snippet of our dorky marketing humor. Only a few people would appreciate something like this ^_^

Comments

c2 said…
bahaha. i FOUND YOU
Eric Yee said…
ahh you used the bridge to life video. i showed that to a pair of my older tutoring students last month =)

Popular posts from this blog

Delirious

delirious (adj): marked by uncontrollable excitement or emotion; ecstatic; filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy (1 peter 1:8); me I don't think I had a personal relationship with God until 2 weeks ago. There have been a lot of formative moments and experiences in the past 6 years of me considering the existence of a higher-being, 3 yrs of being a Christian, 1 year of living by faith, 6 months of serving on church leadership, 1 month of dire circumstances, each of which have been challenged and supported by specific instances in my life.* But it's only been 2 weeks of finding pure joy, satisfaction, and freedom in Christ (alone). Though it's been 6 years since I first stepped into a church building and 3 years since I accepted Christ, I was always afraid to admit that I didn't know what grace, freedom, repentance, or Jesus meant--in terms other than the ones I had heard or read--it was always a theory and never a reality in my own life. After years of doing chur

And just when you least expect it..

Today I went down to the food court with another intern and as I opened my box of sushi, I hesitated. Feeling as if there were too many eyes on me (I only ate with one other person -_-), I questioned whether I should pray before my meal, in fear of social rejection. After I prayed, she asked me if I was a Christian, and I awkwardly responded that I was. Then she said, "Finally! What a relief to know that there are other Christians!" WHAT THE.. I couldn't believe it. Here I was, sitting with a co-worker that I had simply exchanged cordial greetings with, now talking about God haha. Even though I was scared and honestly did NOT want to pray, God used a habitual thing like that to open up opportunities for me to invite her to small group and share my faith. Crazy how He works when you least expect it.

Honesty

If you're my friend, teammate, lifegroup member (or you have any context with me at all), I've probably hurt you. I've probably hurt you in the way I approached you, made you into an agenda, or seemed disinterested in our friendship at times when we weren't being "purposeful". I probably gave you the idea that I didn't value our time together unless we were doing something "productive"--and in all honesty, you were right--you read right through me, and knew exactly what I was thinking. Ever since experiencing God (personally) for the first time three weeks ago, I've seen how my skewed relationship with God has affected so many other parts of my life. Before, I saw having a relationship with God as a list of tasks--in my warped point of view and biases of being an already-too-task-minded person, if I wanted to know God, I needed to read the Bible, persevere in prayer, get involved in biblical community, and serve the church. If I did all these