Ideas from a Hungarian enthusiast – II

This is the second and final part of an article by Harisnya, the Hungarian enthusiast. Harisnya uses the following abbreviations: WPH is for women's pantyhose, MPH is for men's and PH means pantyhose. MPH guy is for men who wear male pantyhose. - Geraden

II. Practice

Guerilla marketing.

What if we ‘reach the masses’? Shall we make them buy MPH from the present manufacturers? Or shall we inform the big manufacturers who don’t produce MPH that it’s time to do so? And what will happen to the small ones if the big ones get into the ring, won’t they KO Activskin and the others?

Yes we shall make guys (and their girls) buy MPH from Comfilon, Activskin and others. We should encourage merchants to order from them and try to sell MPH from the shelves. And yes, most probably they will be knocked out/marginalised three years after the big ones came into business. Except in the unlikely event that they can gain a great technical advantage, or marketing advantage, or patent/rights advantage or financial advantage, this is what will happen to them. (I suggest Steve Katz to patent the open fly PH for the future, just like the Spanx lady did it with footless PH.)

What I outlined before regarding e-mancipate.org is a kind of ‘media hack’, built on the always-hungry-for-news journalists and magazine editors. They just need new topics, and we could build a good source for them – downloadable, free-to-use press kits, professional photographs – which they could use. Translate them with the help of MPH guys. With periodically updating the site (eg. new MPH fashion ’collection’ for the winter, then for the spring) we could encourage them to come back and write again about. I personally read an article about MPH in a small, countryside daily paper years ago where the reporter, corresponding from Rome, wrote a chapter about MPH as a new, but fine wear, in a larger article (see http://www.e-mancipate.org/harisnyanet/hello1.html in Hungarian). The topic was worth a chapter for the reporter as she could make a more colorful article, and, simply, earn money with it.

We should prepare and target the press kits to women’s magazines and fashion sections of newspapers, as this is the way to reach women.

This way there would be coverage in the printed media and probably in their internet versions (which we should link to the site carefully). To reach television we would need much more – but TV is often fishing from newspapers.

What if we have coverage in the printed media?

1. Guys and girls would read about it, sitting at the dining table or on the bus, and talk about. Not all of them, but some. Some from the some would buy, and the others would know that it’s what they read about in the news. And the newspaper would write about it every three months or half year – so they won’t forget. (Remember: preparing and creating a market.)
2. Every big company pays media observers. It is very much like keyword-related search on the internet, just offline (or, in some cases the newspapers even send their content directly in electronic format to the observer company). The companies are curious about their products and about their press coverage. So they would again and again bump into the MPH issue, and, since it’s their industry, assiduous young marketing managers will notice it and put into quarterly reports, and those reports would go to the head of department, and in some cases to higher places. (Remember: big companies have to be forced by the market or by something that they believe is the market.)

Are we gonna lie about it? No. We would show that it’s an important issue for many, and serve with information those who are interested. If they would over-present us, or the issue, they would still not bother any one.

Another, less nice, but still effective tool is to put together simple, customisable, pre-built homepages, which anyone could use for his/her own homepage. If we could make every MPH guy to use these templates and build an own homepage (with personal modifications and content of course) then we would have thousands of webpages about MPH. This would be noticed by anyone who would do a search of MPH on the net, including people from the press and PH industry players.

Sales problem. We have imported with a friend and sold through a small shop last year a few hundred pairs of Evona MPH. This could be a good example for those MPH guys who want to act a little bit. There are some legal issues, there are some money issues, but basically not much. The main point is to find a small shop, fill it with MPH, and release the information in the local MPH community. If the MPH is in the store window of the shop, or in another visible place, then non-MPH people will notice and buy it. “Think global, act local.” (I attach a photo of the storefront of the shop).

Or, why don’t every MPH guy buy MPH to their friends MPH as a Christmas/Birthday/etc. present? (It’s my wife’s question, actually. She asked me if I was such a big warrior of the MPH issue (which she likes and supports very much) why didn’t I start with the people I know? She was right!) Give out a few pairs of MPH to your friends – and some of them will start to like it. You will ‘redeem a soul’ for MPH, and you will help to increase the income of MPH producers. Why don’t we “save” others for MPH? The few people we trust around us? There could be many related ideas.

So these are the ideas behind e-mancipate in a brief. Let me know if you have another one…

End.

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