Advertising looks like a fun business. Ads must be creative
(well, they should be), the business is constantly changing, and companies are
always seeking new ways to be heard. There are some legendary industry
innovations like infomercials. Imagine getting people to watch a full length
commercial like is was a real TV program. Go figure. I never would have thought
it possible. Infomercials seem to be taking over airline entertainment as well.
Today, instead of a movie, we get to watch these short “entertainment” segments
from the TV networks that essentially advertise their shows.
The disruption happening here is that the number of places
where an advertiser can effectively use a “push” model (e.g. forcing a captive
audience to watch something) continue to diminish as more and more information
gets delivered in a pull models. With on-demand systems, and even Tivo, we can
simply bypass what we don’t want to see. To combat this issue advertisers continue to get more
creative and deliver better content. Just look at Superbowl commercials – they
are often better than the game!
The one place that has been a disappointment to me,
however, has been the in development of pull marketing,
often called permission marketing.
What a great opportunity for companies to distinguish themselves. I, as a consumer, actually give some companies permission to send me
information. We all do this from time to time and it is kind of unavoidable
with some things like airline and hotel loyalty programs. What is amazing to me
is that, even with this opportunity, most companies still send out information
that is generic, irrelevant, and just a waste of time. Why doesn’t a company
figure out that, after 47 attempts, I may not want their credit card. I know,
they do these things as “mass mailings” but imagine how much happier a customer
I would be if they sent me something I wanted!
I believe companies are basically squandering their
permission marketing opportunity by
not using their information to their advantage. A typical company will have lots
of information about me, especially if I interact with them regularly. For
example, most airlines know where and how much I like to fly, even my seat
preferences. They could easily get more of my business by offering me discounts
on things that are appealing to me. Instead of offering something I want, I get
credit card offers and discount offers to places that I don't want to go...
The trick is going to be for companies to take a more
information-centric approach and literally develop personalized marketing campaigns. Imagine that instead of
targeting markets with broad brush
programs, they could deliver an integrated marketing
campaign to every individual consumer. The campaign would stress the points
known to be key factors for that individual and any special discounts or offers
would be targeted to known areas of value.
We have the technology economically do this today and I
believe that personalized marketing
will become the new benchmark.
Companies that can leverage their information will be the winners.
Mark…
Very true. I even get credit card offers for a credit card I already have. It's a total waste of resources.
I believe Amazon.com is one of the best at this notion of personalized marketing. They do a great job of analyzing your activity and offering related content you might be interested in.
Posted by: Dave | October 04, 2007 at 02:50 PM
Great post. The fact that I read it through your emcfeeds.emc.com RSS Feeds shows you practice what you preach!
Posted by: Joe | October 01, 2007 at 03:56 PM