On a recent edition of Stand and Bang Radio, Rich Franklin appeared as a special guest to discuss ONE Championships and Armor Gel. Franklin’s energy and interest for both products gripped listeners’ interest and, seemingly, cajoled them to become consumers. Though Franklin piqued my interest for the upcoming ONE Championships fight card, he “Aced” his marketing of Armor Gel.
Franklin’s level of interest and passion of Armor Gel exuded through the mp3 from which it was downloaded. He did such a terrific job pimping Armor Gel on the air that I couldn’t wait to have a four-ounce tube of my own. Hearing about this nano-silver wound dressing caused me to toss my old tube of
Neosporin to make way for its replacement and search out some contacts I could make with various bacterias. I only wish Franklin had been delivering his sales pitch on television; I could only imagine his gesturing, posturing, and overall mannerisms when discussing Armor Gel.
At the very start of sharing the value and importance of Armor Gel, Franklin couldn’t control his level of excitement. He seemed to be bouncing all over the place in his story telling, and it was hard to make the connection of why Rich Franklin was chosen as a spokesperson for this product, besides the fact that he was a former UFC middleweight champion. It was as if he wanted to fit in every piece of information at once. See if you can make out how Franklin got involved with Armor Gel from the beginning of his interview,
“My introduction with the company that makes Armor Gel, which is ABL, American BioTech Lab, they’re out in Utah, was I had opened up a cafe in California, and I was attending a health show in Anaheim one year. They had a booth there, and I stopped to talk to these guys because the product caught my attention. So the introduction with this particular product had really nothing to do with fighting at the time. The reason why it intrigued me was I had recently taken a job with ONE Championships. Part of what I do with ONE Championships is go into markets, like we have our show coming up in Manila, the Philippines, on April 24th, and when I got to the Philippines, I just returned from a trip in Manila where I conducted a press conference for the fight. I’m bouncing from country to country, and I’m grappling on mats in all these different countries, with a bunch of different guys, and you’re mixing a lot of bacterias.”
I don’t know about you, but in that introduction, I didn’t hear why I should know about Armor Gel or why I should be purchasing it. What you aren’t able to extract from the text is Franklin’s tone. He was, clearly, very eager to share his satisfaction with this product, Armor Gel. Franklin then gets into the nuts and bolts of why Armor Gel is such a great product: it’s a topical ointment; there are no drugs or medications; it’s a 24ppm, silver-based, non-toxic gel. Listeners were even given a bit of a history lesson to further defend the validity of the Armor Gel product because Franklin instructed the audience,
“Silver has historically been used to keep water from going rancid. That’s where the tradition of throwing coins into a fountain began.”
Although Franklin gave up his teaching career to become a professional fighter, it seems the teacher has a tough time leaving Franklin. If the Home Shopping Network had been listening to this broadcast, the executives would be wise to contract Franklin as a spokesman to sell products on their network. He stole the age-old playbook of selling a product by getting personally behind it. The anecdotes Franklin provided may all be true, but it was humurous to note the numerous ways Armor Gel could be used; Franklin had been there and done that using Armor Gel. He went on to share,
“It’s [Armor Gel’s] been clinically tested to be very effective against things like staph, ringworm, various yeasts and fungus, and all these kinds of things; I actually had a staph infection on my leg, and I used this stuff on my staph infection on my leg. It cleared up right away. When I’m on an airplane, for example, I’ll rub it on my face, rub it on the inside of my nose; it acts as a barrier, basically, against bacteria I’m breathing. In the fuselage of the plane, you’re basically breathing in and out a cesspool of bacteria all day long. It’s really good for healing cuts; I’ve used it on cuts before, and they heal faster. Then, I can get back to sparring sooner. I’ve used it on things like sunburns; I had a really bad sunburn one time, and I used it on that.”
Then, in an As Seen On TV moment, one of the co-hosts asked Franklin if it’s safe for kids. He responded,
“Absolutely! I had my niece over to the house yesterday, and I have a little bit of property over here in Cincinnati. The kids popped out in the backyard and were walking down along a creek. It’s cold here still, and they ended up getting their feet wet. They wound up taking off their shoes off and walking around the woods. My niece is four years old. She comes up, and she has a little scratch on her foot. I have to put something on the scratch for her because you know how kids are. If you put something on it, it’ll make them feel better, so I put a little bit of the Armor Gel on the scratch.”
The best part of this sales pitch came when Franklin proved just how non-toxic Armor Gel was by discussing in a believe it or not tone that it’s edible,
“Like I said, it’s completely non-toxic. I’ve had an upset stomach before, maybe from eating some bad food, and I actually put some of the tube in my mouth to help with some of the bacteria.”
I was already on the cusp of running to my laptop to order my own tube, but the fact that Armor Gel can also act as Pepto-Bismol put me over the edge; I couldn’t get my credit card information into the system fast enough.
Franklin also covered the need for fighters and grapplers to invest in their own tube of Armor Gel because in some gyms around the world, Franklin attested to, the mats appear as though they have never been cleaned, which could lead to some serious bacteria transference. Gross! Staying healthy is a big piece of the fight game, therefore, an ointment that supports quick healing and provides a protective barrier should be found in every fighter’s gym bag.
I have been in Franklin’s shoes. In all my excitement to share something I’m passionate about, I’ll jump from the middle, to the end, and circumvent back to the beginning of whatever that topic may be. The information may not get dispersed in the exact manner I intended, but my pleasure and interest comes across in my frantic attempt to provide every single piece of information all at once. Rich Franklin’s love of Armor Gel tempted me, the consumer, and it’s clearly a product he’s passionate about and stands behind. I wish I would have expedited my shipping!
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