Don't Find Me - I'll Find You

Happy 2008!

Even though I had a lot of time to write lately, there are just so many things that are annoying me right now (gas prices, the war, the election, having to work through the Holidays etc.) that I was having a hard time picking one to write about – so I just didn’t write at all.

But today I had this discussion with my sister via e-mail that I thought I might share. She is in the marketing business and I am very anti-marketing as I have written before. I always vent my frustrations with my sister and hopefully she learns what things irritate people like me and can share that with her marketing peeps. This is important because what most marketing people don’t realize is that if you annoy us – we won’t buy from you.

I don’t know if I’m using correct industry terms here but I see two types of marketing - Passive Marketing where I seek information and Aggressive Marketing where they seek me. The Yellow Pages are a good example of passive marketing. All those ads are just sitting there waiting until I need to find something and then ta-da, there they are. A good example of aggressive marketing is an experience my sister had on a recent trip where they were harassed by timeshare sales people. They were on vacation – not even in the market for a time share. But, I can guarantee that if they were suddenly in the market for a timeshare, they would have known exactly where to find information – even in a foreign country.

Unfortunately, marketers only seem to use the aggressive style. I’m spending an unbelievable amount of time trying to opt-out of marketing programs. And I’m spending a lot of money trying to get content on my TV and computer without all the ads. In my opinion aggressive marketing is unproductive, expensive and frustrating for them and us.

The marketers might point out that their sales figures prove that their techniques work. I would challenge that notion. I would bet that if they didn’t present us with all those annoying ads they would still sell their products. We would find what we are looking for. But even if I need your item, I won’t click on that flashing ad in the middle of my news story. Sorry, you have annoyed me and I won’t support your business – next!

Imagine how peaceful a world without ads would be.
Imagine how nice the Holiday Season would be.
Imagine the reduced bandwidth on the Internet.
Imagine the paper saved.
Imagine the restored scenic views and reduced light pollution when the billboards are removed.
Imagine the phone ringing and it’s a friend.
Imagine no spam in your e-mail box.
Just imagine.