An Unexpected Marketing Adventure …
It was a cool Friday night in Northern Virginia. The fall-kissed evening finds our two leading marketing ladies, Mayra Ruiz-McPherson and her creative partner in crime, Karina Djijo from Djijo Studios driving home after a long day of filming new bizworkTV episodes and visiting a client in the Woodbridge area.
“Are you OK if we do a quick pit stop in Manassas?” asked Karina, who explained she had to pick up a special type of skin care cream at a Manassas-based ethnic beauty store before getting home. “Sure,” replied Mayra, who was thinking the lotion-focused pit stop would be quick and painless.
Umm, such was not the case.
While the bizworkTV co-producing duo did eventually get to the ethnic beauty supply store and ultimately home, the “quick skin care product purchase” plans were interceded by a most unexpected detour.
Karina pulled into a strip mall and parked the car. As Mayra looked around the parking lot, she noticed there was no ethnic beauty supply store in sight. “Where are we?” Mayra asked, all kinds of perplexed. Karina, with her eyes full of excitement, smiled wryly. “This is where I buy most of my books.”
“Books??? What happened to the ethnic lotions??” asked a bewildered Mayra. The two chuckled as they locked the car doors and approached a massive retail storefront. The red-lettered sign lit the storefront brightly. It was McKay Used Books in Manassas.
Mayra could not believe her used book loving eyes! Upon walking into McKay’s, her eyes widened as she saw shelf upon shelf packed to the gills with, you guessed it, used books galore! We’re talking recipe books. Craft books. Romance books. History books. Health books. Comic books. And ooooh yes, even business books!
A true business book junkie, Mayra dumped Karina 
and made a bee line straight for the business section: aisle 7B.
Aisle 7B
Aisle 7B is categorized as “business” but there are various sub-topics under “business” including “marketing.” That’s where our marketing maven, Mayra, parked herself for most of her time at McKay’s.
Marketing book titles of ***all*** kinds where there. Advertising topics. PR topics. Marketing Plans. The marketing subject list was endless.
Mayra could not stop reading the spines.
She pulled out a book of interest …
The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation by Joe Plummer, Stephen D. Rappaport, Taddy Hall and Robert Barocci.
Mayra also pulled Differentiate or Die by Jack Trout and two other marketing and PR books off the shelves.
How this used marketing book tale ends
In the end, Mayra walked out with four used marketing books to read. She’s already started the book by Jack Trout and is a happy marketing clam reading all about brand and marketing differentiation.
And Karina? Well, her book adventures are much different than Mayra’s and have nothing to do with marketing and more to do with philosophy. That being said, Mayra would not have discovered this used book store without her doting, beloved Karina sidekick.
All in all it was a most unexpected, very surprising and wonderful detour and discovery on a fall Friday evening …
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