“Can you shop till you drop? Does the prospect of buying for others and getting paid for it make you tingle?” That’s part of the ad run by LetsBuyIt.com, the online price comparison site, for an “international shopping consultant,” who will be in charge of finding the best products at the best prices all over the world.
The ad is undoubtedly appealing. With a salary of $8,000 a month and a shopping budget of more than $15,000, the chosen candidate will visit seven major cities around the world seeking out the best shopping districts, products that cannot be found anywhere else and the latest trends. From London to Paris, via New York, Berlin, Milan, Tokyo and Hong Kong, he or she will travel in business class and stay at prestigious hotels.
A marketing coup
But behind this dream job ad is hiding, first and foremost, an international communications operation. Similarly to the “best job in the world” ad for the caretaker of a tropical island that attracted tens of thousands of applications and generated several million dollars in advertising revenue last spring (see our previous article: A Briton lands the Best Job in the World), this “second best job in the world,” as LetsBuyIt has called it, is a huge marketing coup. Covered by media from around the world, the ad should provide the site with exceptional international visibility. And if it enjoys as much success as the first one, this type of job ad/advertising coup could well inspire similar efforts. . .