The Stupidity of Direct Marketing

Eric Weaver posts a damning appraisal of an American Marketing Association webcast on consumer marketing, and rips into their general advocacy of interruption marketing.

“if you undermine trust, relationships cannot grow or survive”. But, umm, you ARE undermining trust…you ARE trying to get past barriers that consumers have put up. And if we bring this into the real world, how many people have trusting relationships with burglars or partycrashers?

“Make sure your data is properly cleansed.” (You mean, make sure the email address is correct so you can interrupt their day with a fascinating offer.)

“Immediately begin a direct dialog through multichannel marketing.” (You mean, an automated monologue spewed in the customer’s direction that starts off with “Dear __ERIC__,”.)

He then lists marketing steps for Awareness, Acquisition, and Retention.

I’ll list the Acquisition one’s here, and leave you to read his commentary for each, if it interests you:

• Be considerate of my preferences.
• Stop trying so hard to sell me
• Say the right things at the right time in the selling process
• Be honest
• Be real

Overall, a sad judgement on modern marketing in America.