Hey, What’s up everybody? what’s up Super-Trainers? This is your boy, Sam from Super-Trainer.com. What’s going on?
And, today what I wanna do is I want to talk to you about marketing incest. You know what marketing incest is? – Marketing incest is when everybody is doing the same thing. They’re watching each other, and there’s copying each others ads. So now, check this out. This is the two, right here in the Chino Hills area, there are two magazines. Okay, one of them is called the “Butterfield Stageline”. This is January 2012. Okay, another one is the “Westcoast Magazine”, and again if you look at here, it’s January 2012. Right? Okay, so once you turn the page I want to show you all these trainers’ ads that look exactly the same and say the same darn thing. So, check this out.
So first one, we got this person’s ad, looks familiar. If you look at here, it says “Voted #1 Fitness Bootcamp in Chino Valley” Okay, so voted #1 fitness bootcamp in Chino Valley… by who? I’ve been living here for 12-15 years and everybody that has been living here, nobody has ever seen a voting procedure, like a voting company that’s gonna come in here and actually take the right vote, where people get to actually vote for. We never heard of it and I’ve been here for pretty much half of my life.
So, now we’re gonna come here. A different magazine, January 2012, this is Butterfield Stageline. We have another bootcamp here, Chino Hills Indoor bootcamp. Wait a second, they say they’re voted #1 indoor bootcamp in Chino Hills. Wow! What the hell, I’m confused. Who’s number one? I thought these guys say they’re number one, and now, these guys say they’re number one. Wow, I’m totally confused. So, you could just go out there and say you know, promote yourself as the number one without really having any voting organization going out there and saying that you’re number one. There’s no rhyme or reason. Is anybody teaching you out there to do that? You know, you are going to lose your credibility with the public and once you lose trust, you lose everything. Don’t ever get caught lying, when somebody asks you who actually voted you? What is the voting sanction? How are the voting procedures done? Can you go on there and vote a hundred different times for yourself online? Well, anybody can do that, right? So, now let’s go and listen to some more ads. Because they’re full of them, okay. Oh! here’s one, another bootcamp. This is an affiliate… and voted #1 fitness trainer. Okay, so we have a voted #1 bootcamp and a voted #1 fitness trainer. You thought that the number one fitness trainer would be the number one bootcamp, but it’s not. So, I guess you can be the best fitness trainer and have a bad bootcamp. So, I’m really confused. So, is it the fitness trainer that makes the bootcamp or just the bootcamp that makes the bootcamp. So, this guy is voted #1 fitness trainer, but he doesn’t say who, what, what organization, who gave him that right so he’s given his own right to do that. Wait a second, now let’s look at here, what else we have? Let me see, let me just see the post. There, Results or your money back, okay let me see if they have results or your money back… results or you don’t pay a dime. Wow, okay. So we’re going on, now let me see what else they’ve got.
Oh wow, now let me see here. Now let’s go even more, let’s go over here. Now this is just a bad ad. So if you see these folks, do not. If you’re gonna spend fifteen hundred dollars on a 1-page ad, which I highly recommend you don’t unless you can barter this with the owner or someone. There’s no return on a $1500 – $2000 ad on one page here. So, if you’re gonna do that, don’t wear a tank top in the ad. That’s just ridiculous, I mean nobody wants to see that. I mean, if I’m paying for my wife to go there I don’t wanna see some dude with a bunch of muscles in a tank top to be training her, neither does anybody else. Remember the wives are the ones going here mostly and their husbands are paying, so nobody wants to see a dude with muscles hanging out and looking like Mr. Clean.
Anyway, this is just, you know Sam at super-trainer.com just keeping it real with you, just want to tell you what mistakes not to make. You’re not going to make your ads look like anybody else. Don’t just call yourself #1 when you aren’t number one and there are no voting sanctions. Because people can see that, you see this is a small community. The same people who get this are the same people who get this. So, if you call yourself #1 make sure you have authorization or somebody to back it up. Anybody can call themselves number one. It takes hard work, it takes dedication, and it takes desire. Don’t use the same testimonials everywhere else. I mean if you go to this website right here and then you go to this website here. They’re 4-miles apart and they’ve got the same testimonials. What gives? Now, you’re number one trainer or you’re number one bootcamp. I thought it should be simultaneous, but it’s not.
Alright, Sam from Super-Trainer.com just keeping it real with you. See you soon.
Haha, where was the election?? HIlarious Sam! Don’t you have the number one boot camp in Chino also? :)
Are you f-cking kidding me? Wow a Fit Body and ANOTHER fit body 4 miles apart. I thought the Eckermans ran Chino Hills.
No wonder there is no positive ROI on those $1500-$2000 ads, everybody has all seen the same shit. #1 Means nothing anymore, Money back guarantees mean nothing, free saturday bootcamps are irrelevant, everyone does nutrition coaching (aka they print out that crappy 14 day fat flush 1700 and 1300 calorie meal plans or just say “eat 6 meals a day” lulz), etc. Unless people come up with something new QUICK, these bootcamps will become commodities. Nobody is going to bat an eyelash to these shady businesses anymore, and everyone is gonna either have to compete by price, or just go to the bootcamp near their house.
These are popping up everywhere, too. Trainers think all they need “ENERGY, BRO!” to run a bootcamp. Never mind worrying about proper warm-ups (like why does FBBC encourage warm-ups to be super intense when people can hurt themselves when not properly stretched), exercise techniques, or exercise programming (like FBBC tells people to just print out workouts done by one bootcamp and assumes every bootcamp can do the same thing).
So much emphasis on the marketing and no worry about whether trainers do their job right. I cringe when I hear stories about trainers trying to be badass and giving their clients stupid exercises in an effort to be cool and then people get hurt. People gotta understand that we are PLAYING WITH PEOPLE’S LIVES here.
Trainers seriously think all it takes to run a bootcamp is get a bunch of people in one room, have them do stations until they damn near pass out, and just collect the dough. What a scam.
Does using someone else’s workouts count as maketing incest, too?
I love it…thanks for putting that out there!
I can’t lie – I’m the one that voted them number one.
Got a q for you Sam. First off I agree, don’t lie or HYPE to the public. I used to do this, with ONLY 21 SPOTS left text, and stuff like that, but don’t do it anymore. However, I do state that I’m NEW YORK’S #1 BOOTCAMP on one of my stores and on my ads – because this location has 220 members (and hundreds more past members when you count promos and trials), I feel I’m justified in doing this. Don’t know of a bootcamp with more members. Do you think this sounds too HYPEY? What are your thoughts?
btw speaking of incest, that looks alot like the ad you and bosslady were running a few months ago
One thing is saying you’re #1 the other is saying people voted you number #1.
Muhammad Ali is known as “The greatest fighter who ever lived”
It was on the cover of Time magazine, Life and many others.
Until a reporter looked into it and found no organization gave him that title. When they asked Muhammad Ali who said you’re the greatest fighter who ever lived?
He replied: “Me” (bad ass attitude)
He never said: “voted the greatest fighter.”
You got the right attitude Kaiser!!
@Kaiser,
I couldn’t have said it better that Luis. It’s one thing you said you’re #1 after all everyone thinks that it’s another thing to say voted #1 when there is no such a thing.
There is a fine line between persuasion and manipulation
wow, great post. what if your clients call you the number one trainer in your city. funny, one of my client. who is a hair stylist posted that I was #1, but that’s her opinion.
Hey Sam you hit the nail right on the head. I have been promised alot and have noticed that all our websites are the same and we are not getting any calls from them or request through email. Right now I am going to concentrate on the clients that just want tone up. Too many people out there fighting for the people that want to lose weight. thanks for putting this video up it was great
That’s right Sam, and it’s easy to say you’re number when you actually ARE #1.
Deep down inside, we as human beings feel its fraud to say “We’re #1” when you know deep down you’re not. Doesn’t fell good doing it.
That’s the reason they have resort to creating a fictitious “Voted #1” ….
Love how you keep it real and honest!