What is keeping me awake at night?

Last week I went shopping. One thing that I wanted really badly was a new curling iron. I did not care about the brand, just the size and it had to be within my budget (that was €50).
When I arrived at the store, one thing I noticed that they had a whole wall with curling irons with the size I wanted. But when there is so much choice and the prices did not differ much, I was clueless which one to buy. After approximately 2 minutes a woman came to me with the magic words ‘’Can I help you with anything?’’
After I explained what I wanted she recommended one that was revolutionary because it had a unique feature that prevents your hair from becoming really dry, but a little bit over my budget. She gave me information about how to use the product, walked with me to the counter and eventually said goodbye.

When I was at home reading some articles for school about marketing I recognized something in her behavior. She was exactly following the ‘traditional’ steps of marketing how to sell a product to the costumer according to the guru Verhage!

His theory:

Recognize the problem
↓
Translate the problem in the products
↓
Translate the product in the needs of the costumer
↓
Taking away all the doubts
↓
Building a relation

After reading this I was feeling a little bit like ‘a victim of excellent marketing’. But after seeing so many  campaigns about this product on television I was again really satisfied with the product.
What the campaigns did according to Verhage is taking away my cognitive dissonance.

When someone thinks they are never going to be a victim of a good marketing strategic they somehow already are.