Ad Age Cover Story: Do Not Market?
Today's cover story in Ad Age, "Do Not Market," hits a critical theme all marketers should all be thinking about, and which this blog consistently has sought to address: consumer frustration with advertising and the inevitable consequences of pushing the line with newly empowered consumers. This time the latest salvo from the lines of consumer resistance comes in the form of multiple state legislatures pushing legislation to bring "do not call" principles (and guidelines) to the mailbox. I'm quoted suggested we reached a "perfect storm of consumer power and advertising intrusion," and moreover that we need to think well beyond just "paid media." Easier said than done, of course, but the conversation is absolutely critical, and the major industry groups (ANA, IAB, AAAA, DMA) really need to coalesce around this difficult issue and proactively find a "win-win" middle ground. The reality we're dealing with is perfectly described in the first paragraph of the Ad Age story:
Katy barred the door- -- just her latest exercise in exerting control over marketing messages. Having clearly established her ability to bad-mouth your brand on her blog, TiVo your TV commercials, stop your phone calls and filter out your pop-ups, now-with the help of the government-she's trying to stop you getting access to her mailbox.
If you subscribe to Ad Age, I've written four op-eds on related themes (Consumer Respect, Spam, Pop-Up, CGM Ethics). The links are also at the top left of this blog. Many of my ClickZ articles (see full archive) also address this theme.
"Do Not Market" is obviously "headline bait", and should be "Market The Way The Consumer Wants To Be Marketed To".
However, once beyond the initial marketing approach (hopefully NOT with "Intrusiveness, Saturation and Clutter"), marketers need to follow through with good Collaborative CRM and ongoing transparency in their "engagement", or no matter how they get the customer, they could lose them.
I love the Lexus brand and have two of their LS models. However, my latest blog post entitled "Has Lexus Read the "Cluetrain Manifesto"? shows my discontent over Lexus's handling of what I consider to be a safety issue. I've filed a complaint with the NHTSA. See:
http://www.brokerblogger.com/brokerblogger
/2007/03/has_lexus_read_.html
Posted by: Brokerblogger | March 13, 2007 at 05:42 PM