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opinion
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Let me get this straight: all I have to do is get a bottle-cap from a Pepsi product, even if I didn't buy it, enter the code on it, and I stand to win $1 billion - with a "b" - dollars?
Hold on, wait… I hear tell AOL is giving away Apple iPod's if I sign up for 1099 free hours of usage and refer my friends to do the same.
It appears that large marketers have thrown so many things at consumers that the proverbial kitchen sink - the bribe - is no longer taboo. Not that I care, of course, unless you're describing this as marketing; and marketing as professional all in the same sentence. It's insulting to think that the sort of antics that passes for marketing strategy today are the best companies can come up with. I'm terribly disappointed that such sophisticated marketers allow their marketing departments to run amok of the valuable relationships that consumers have with them.
By training consumers to respond to free money and not ask for a purchase intent in return is ridiculous. It's no wonder why so many senior executives disdain "branding"; these sort of gimmicks are disguised as branding when all they really are doing is pissing valuable resources away.
It's almost as if thinking
were hazardous to your health in marketing departments. Here are some recommendations:
fire a bunch of people from your departments so they wouldn't spend all their
time justifying their salaries with silly ideas; keep senior-level promotions
to a minimum; stop basing decisions on ego and stop copying your competitors
- consumers really don't notice you when you do that; and have everyone use
technology to track expenditures and results on a desktop dashboard instead
of having purchasing managers manage costs. In no time flat, you'll improve
and enhance your relationships with your customers and actually convince non-customers
to give your product a try with the intent to buy.
Write to Al Berrios at editor@alberrios.com
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