Dolly Parton will not always love you ...
Dolly Parton will not always love you ...
On businesses using terms of endearment for purely commercial relationships
Is Dolly Parton really my friend? I found myself entertaining this amusing possibility while at Dollyworld on a recent family trip to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in East Tennessee. Throughout the big amusement park, I observed numerous tokens of friendly, even familial affection from Ms. Parton, as if she was everyone’s favorite rich Aunt Dolly and had invited us all over for big party at her estate. This is, of course, common practice in American commerce: slathering on a manufactured “personal touch” as a sales and marketing gimmick, to connive customers into thinking we’re all a great big, happy family.
Dale Carnegie discussed similar techniques in his self-help book for salesmen, How to Win Friends and Influence People. To establish rapport with people, find out what they’re interested in and talk to them about that. Obviously, this works better if you actually share their enthusiasm for the subject, but if you don’t, you can always pretend that you do; and if you’re a good enough actor, the effect will be the same. If you want to sell people shit, just feign a personal connection: that’s the lesson America’s sales and marketing gurus took from Carnegie.
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