Why Fake Thai Boobs are the Future of Professional Services Marketing

Australian consumers’ attitude has changed dramatically in ways that have serious threats to professional service providers.

Doctors, lawyers, dentists, architects, accountants and even marketers are all at risk.

More and more Australians are going overseas for new boobs and teeth in a trend that perfectly illustrates the threat facing all local professionals.

A recent Channel 7’s Sunday Night program followed a group of Australian women as they went to Thailand for new boobs, teeth and a tan all at a fraction of what it would have cost them here and in far, far quicker time.

Sun, Sand, Silicon and Smiles

The growing popularity of “cosmetic surgery tourism” is not that new, but the story highlights how the mindset of Australian consumers has changed forever–

“If we can’t get it here quickly and cheaply, we’ll simply go somewhere overseas where we can.”

They can find what they want via a quick search on the net via their mobile phone, tablet or PC. Then go social to ask their global network of friends if any of them have done it and have any recommendations.

You can watch the Channel 7 report here

Today the web allows consumers to shop globally, for anything they want, nothing really new in that as far as consumer goods are concerned, but there’s been a growing trend for customers to also do it for professional services.

It started with the outsourcing and crowd sourcing of technology and development tasks through well know sites such as oDesk, eLance and Fiverr.

Now it has grown to include legal, accounting, marketing and all sorts of other professional services.

(Also see Digital Darwinism: Are You a Swinger or Dead Meat? on how many businesses are failing to keep up with the modern consumer.)

Anything Can be Outsourced and Digitised

I know plenty of business owners who already outsource all the grunt work of their legal and accounting requirements overseas, and then just get it finalised and ticked off locally.

They are saving a small fortune and despite initial reservations are more than satisfied with the quality of the work they get done.

While all of this business was initially done online, the experience and growing acceptance of transacting with people globally has inevitably changed the customers’ attitude to all forms of shopping and business.

It’s no longer limited to just online.

Consumers are now more knowledgeable about their options than ever before and are prepared to travel and shop anywhere to get what they want.

As such, all professionals are now competing globally for clients and business, especially the specialists.

Unfortunately many of them probably aren’t even aware of this or how their local customer base is being slowly but surely eroded.

As I've said before, many businesses ahve a mental or cultural problem when dealing with the online revolution - Australian Business Just Doesn’t Get the Web.

Australia’s isolation and vast internal geography has meant that for so long professional service providers have had a relatively captive market. Not anymore. The web has been a catalyst for great change in the customers' mind, not just for online services but for all services.

The Future of Professional Services Marketing

There are some who have seen which way the trend is going and have moved to set up businesses that facilitate getting professional work done overseas. 

That is, the consumer gets the best of both worlds. They get a local professional to contact and oversee the work while still getting the benefit of having it done cheaply overseas.

However, that’s merely a middleman solution. What all service providers need to be constantly thinking about is: “How can I provide my services digitally? How can I compete globally?”

For professions such as medicine and dentistry, such thinking may have previously seemed inconceivable as the belief is that they really do need to actually see the patient/ customer.

But as our newly pumped up, smiling and tanned young women have proved, they don’t need to see you at all.

We live in interesting times.