On a quick, random, un-scientific survey I’ve discovered that over two-thirds of my acquaintances have unsubscribed from Moonpig newsletters. Why? Too many reminders to send Mother’s Day cards.
Why are they sending so many reminders? To be helpful? Trying to bump their revenue? Well we can only guess, but surely their mailing list is a major asset; if consumers are unsubscribing at any significant rate it is a disaster.
Is it just me or is the packaging of different Birds products too similar?
When you’re in a rush, legging it around the Co-op, the bloody Rum flavour Sauce is the Instant custard you are after. Now we have three pack of the stuff…and no one here likes it.
The fact it was reduced from 44p to 33p is no consolation at all.
Birds, help your customers with better packaging, please.
I’m not really sure who the winner is for wasted direct mail campaign effort this week. My favourites through the letter box this morning, and clear contenders, are:
Boden: A personalised letter with a £10 gift voucher to encourage me to use the catalogue they sent me a few weeks back. Sorry Boden, I haven’t received a catalogue from you, therefore your stream of restrictions and terms and conditions are of no relevance to me.
AA Insurance: A beautifully personalised letter inviting me to insure my car with the AA. The only real obvious blunder is that they are referring to a car that I sold nearly three years ago in August 2007.
I think my winner for the week is Boden.
Have you got any corking examples of poor, irrelevant or inaccurate direct mail? Please share.
This is a very good talk from Jesse Schell at DICE 2010 in Las Vegas. It’s rare that online videos are worth 30 minutes of your time, but this one is.
Issues covered:
If the player above doesn’t show (for some reason Google Chrome doesn’t like it), follow this link.
I texted the number at the end of the TV advert for a catalogue. I got an immediate text back thanking me for my interest and saying they would contact me soon for address details. Five days later and I’ve still heard nothing.
I wonder how CPC Farnell measure the return on investment from their TV advertising? It may be by the increase in market share of their competitors…I’ve just got what I needed from Screwfix.
Are you focused on flogging stuff or building relationships? The difference is substantial but often misunderstood.
Doug Levy has written an interesting article titled 5 principles of breakthrough success in the “Relationship Era”. Levy talks about the history and evolution of business through the following phases:
Product Era: The focus is solely on transactions.
Consumer Era: The focus is still on transactions, but the idea of trust enters the dialogue as a way to persuade people to transact more.
Relationship Era: Trust between a brand and consumer is mutual. Trust and transactions are seen as distinct, and both are important.
I especially like his succinct principles for a relationship:
Principle 1: Clarify purpose
Principle 2: Commit to sustainable relationships
Principle 3: Connect with authenticity
Principle 4: Treat customers as partners
Principle 5: Engage
My thanks to Sarah Derry #sarahderry for telling me about this article. Read the complete article.
The book “Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents For The Holidays” was published just in time for the Christmas gift market. It is written by Joel Waldfogel who outlines why we should turn our backs on the Christmas gift market. It’s all a big waste, he believes.
Waldfogel’s surveys have asked people how much they would have paid for gifts had they not received the items. The average the recipient would have paid comes out at nearly 20% less than was actually paid. This results in a global loss of value of some £15bn, yes billion, pounds.
An interesting theory and you can read a little more about it in this BBC article. When I heard this item on BBC Radio 4 it seemed to ignore the value gained by the giver of the presents.
What are your thoughts on this subject? There are some wonderful examples of bad gifts in the comments section of the BBC article.
