Frank Kern -- Hot or Not?
You know something? I personally believe Frank Kern spells the death knell for the internet marketing community as we know it.
But before I go on, here’s the disclaimer:
I’ve got nothing against the man. I respect him as a stunningly brilliant marketer. In fact, he’s still one of my marketing heroes. And his branding for Mass Control was the inspiration behind Puppet String Marketing, the Puppet Master and my range of Salvation System products.
But here’s the thing–there is such a thing as too much marketing genius.
Let me explain.
What’s good marketing?
Good marketing is finding out what your customers want and then giving it to them.
Do the research. Tap into the right emotions. And presto, you’ve just maximized the chances of your promotion’s success.
The more precisely you execute this principle, the better a marketer you are.
Frank “Superbad” Kern is the maestro of finding out what his customers want, and then giving it to them. In fact, his “Core Influence” presentation is one of the key scriptures in the internet marketing community.
So what does Frank Kern’s audience–which encompasses nearly the entire online marketing crowd–want?
They want to push a button and have money suddenly rain down. They want to work a 4-hour-work-week while making millions of dollars a month. They want to cut-and-paste one of Frank’s money-getting emails and transform their autoresponders into a lucrative ATM machine.
Like Frank, a ton of them want to be the 9th Worst Surfer in La Jolla.
But here’s the problem…
What marketers want may not be the best for them. What marketers want may not be best for the marketing community as a whole.
That’s why you get the noise pollution in your inboxes, with emails screaming “Bad News”. Or the irritating phony-friendly way marketers now twist arms and scribble “talk soon”. Or the endless home-made videos that seem to be pale imitations of “Frank’s Greatest Hits”.
And those are just the established ones.
Now, there’s a bunch of freebie seekers who devour every free video and execute these strategies without knowing the forest and the trees…
Frank’s Army of the Clueless.
Whether deliberately or not, Frank Kern is responsible for creating a homogenous generation of knucklehead pseudo-marketers who are allergic to greasy elbows and grinding noses. Even Frank Kern slaved away into the night once upon a time.
My point? Internet marketers really need to grow up and realize that old-school direct response marketing will always trump cut-and-paste fads.
Unfortunately, the problem with the internet marketing niche is ironically, brilliant marketers like Frank. As long as there’s money to be made from human nature, it will not go away. Heck, I’m not expecting social responsibility. As a marketer and copywriter myself, the worth of my work is judged by my response rates, and my response rates can only come by pressing the right emotional buttons.
What happens is a vicious cycle of emotional buttons triggering the need for quick fixes, triggering a marketing community that’s fighting for the scraps underneath Frank Kern and his merry men’s tables–attempting adult marketing stunts with an infantile mentality.
Fascinating, really.
My encouragement? Actually BUY Frank’s stuff. Like Mass Control 77.6 or something. That’s how you’ll get those marketing basics. Look beyond his persona and go into the principles of why he’s projecting the image he’s showing off. (You’ll know when he’s releasing or re-releasing his product due to the usual gang promoting the heck out of it.)
Surprising suggestion? Hardly. To be as successful as Frank, you need to not only imitate Frank’s actions, but to know the motivations behind those actions to begin with. That’s how you can stop getting suckered into a cycle of lies and become a brilliant marketer in your own right.
More importantly, what do you guys think? Do you love Frank? Hate him? Agree with his methods? Please leave your thoughts in the Comments Section at the bottom. Thanks!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hate
Frank Kern is just like Tony Robbin in the self help field.
Both of them simplifies complex stuffs into easy to digest information.
Both of them have distinct styles when it comes to presentation.
Both are cool
Faliq
I always stay under the radar and watch and learn. Whatever techniques I can pick up that do NOT go against my ethics…I’ll use them.
I never want to copy – I want to excel.
Hi Ken
Right you are. The market for making money online is NEVER going to go away.
In fact with the looming recession it is only going to get larger and make some people VERY rich as ‘Bob the redundant worker’ madly scrambles for any way to make money. In particular the lure of making money at home behind a PC is an irresistible siren song for millions …
Frank knows this. Hey .. I’ve bought all of his stuff , and it is all utterly brilliant. I now apply it every day successfully, but it took me a while to digest. So as you say – there is no quick road, but once you find it, take flight.
Excellent article my man.
Jonathan
http://TrafficCafe.TV
This is a really well thought out and executed post Ken, and it takes guts to come out and say it, as well as diplomacy and skill in saying it skillfully without malice and in a constructive manner.
I too think that Frank Kern is brilliant, but in my opinion he is the slick snake oil salesman of the Internet that understands the human condition and psyche very well and just plays to that upon a massive wave of self confidence and the inertia and momentum of his enormous success and huge mailing list and JV connectivity. It’s a kind of “plug & play” & “lock & load” system for Frank in so much that he just creates a new product or concept and the attendant shiny buttons that go with it, and the rest is a numbers game.
I’ve just written an article on my blog that addresses this very issue of people ( especially Internet newcomers) that subscribe completely to the “copy & paste” and 4-hour work week mentality and expect $10k months to occur almost instantly even though they only just arrived on the IM scene. I think I aptly named my article “www. stands for Work Work Work”. Keep these articles coming Ken,.. they’re much needed and very worthwhile indeed.
Cheers to you and Laura!
I like Frank, he is a brilliant marketer. I agree with you in that too many people try to copy his sh-t without understanding the concepts behind them. But I also think that people wanting easy money from the internet is nothing new and doubt seriously that Frank Kern “spells the death knell of the internet marketing community.” He’s not God … is he?
I have a fascination with Frank, but at the same time find him to be strangely appalling. I think it’s because: He tries really hard to act like he’s not trying very hard (sort of your point, Kenneth), and he seems extremely arrogant. But I recognize that he has something going to be where he is at this time. I don’t have mass Control, BTW.
Hey Kenneth,
I’m a huge fan of your marketing since you stopped by and briefly gave me a lesson about real marketing by example.
Although I love Frank and would buy Mass Control if I had every other marketing product out there I’ve often looked at all online marketers as old wine in new skins.
I think the real value provided by your example and Kern’s is that you show us blockheads how things look when they’re done right.
I’ve always supported the concept of buying everything you can… as far as information… but never buying more than I can digest.
This one principle has lead me to more success than I ever thought possible.
Keep on being awesome Kenneth!
Courtney James
Obvious Writer
Hiya Kenneth,
You are so right, but the biggest problem is that people think if they buy the next best product it will make them money without acting on it. Frank’s products are great, but they don’t make you money by themselves.
You need to knuckle down a little and build small blocks to success.
Warm regards
Kelly Ifrah
The IM Membership.com
frank kern smart man
makes money cause of ppl looking for the american dream….
Thank god for milions of dreamers!
the world has many,every day another sucker is born!
and in the IM scene every second at least hundred newbies are born
nice article,nice read
Great article! I am new to internet marketing, so I will reserve judgment. However, I have seen Frank a couple of times live and read his blogs and stuff and find him very entertaining and his ideas interesting. What I absolutely don’t like is wanna-be’s trying to act like him. Annoying!! If his act is real, it fits him and only him.
Frank Kern now has a customer base that will keep him wealthy for the rest of his life. Yet lately, instead of teaching the new wanna-be’s the intracasies of online marketing, he is trying to teach us to be like him. Now, Frank Kern has achieved super star status in this industry and his fan club will keep buying his stuff even if it is the same thing they bought 3 months ago. His system for making money lately (and it all boils down to this) is get famous like me and you will get rich. Well, just like we all can’t be Brad Pitt….we all can’t be Frank Kern. But with the right teacher, we all can be as wealthy as him. Professor Mack Michael can take the timid and unsure wanna-be, and quietly make them rich.
you nailed it with the “look behind the curtain” portion concerning frank kern. he really works hard, but makes it look as if he doesnt.
part of the beauty is to find something that you are passionate about, then working hard at it doesnt feel like hard work.
Frank simply understands that personality can sell stuff. And if people like you enough, they’ll call you a genius to justify buying what you have to sell them *even if* it really doesn’t make any noticeable change in your life.
Because then you’re dealing with incongruence – either you were wrong about how cool he is, or you suck too bad to make it work.
I like the article Puppet Master and I think there’s more truth below the surface than what you stated. You’ve only offered us a glimpse into the rabbit hole. It goes much deeper.
Do I like Frank Kern? Better than most of them.
Frank’s style is unique and works for him. Casual, laid back and he appeals to those wanting an ‘easy system’, however, we all know Frank works his TAIL off to be a successful marketer.
He has some top mentors, learns, applies and delivers some top notch training to his followers.
Gotta love d’man
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