(Welcome to Loose Cannon, a staff-written editorial focusing on issues of interest to the direct marketing community. To respond to this week's editorial via e-mail, please send your message to rlevey@primediabusiness.com.)
One of the best small-budget marketing programs I’ve covered was from Millstone Signature Blends, a coffee direct mailer that had its prospects complete a flavor preference survey before sending them a custom blend of beans. The approach was effective because it allowed consumers to talk about their favorite subjects – themselves.
There was another important element to Millstone’s program. After prospects were surveyed, they were presented with a product that incorporated their preferences.
Expressing interest in a prospect’s opinions is an attractive approach, and telemarketers have picked up on it. The problem is that — at least to my ear — they’re doing so clumsily. Calls that start out ostensibly as opinion surveys end up touting magazines, or aluminum siding, or (in the case of the notorious "push-polling" that got a lot of play about a year and a half ago) political candidates.
Perhaps I take this personally because I worked briefly as an outbound telemarketer. If, during the summer of 1988, you purchased a set of "Sweet Pickles" children’s books, I thank you.
Sure, the scripts were carefully designed to parry negative reactions. But (as best I could tell) they never dissembled. In fact, the only time I ever heard the management tell someone to lie was with a rep who shared a name with John Dean, Nixon’s White House counsel. Management felt that when he introduced himself his name distracted prospects from his sales pitch.
I’ve also worked in market research – real market research, from a firm that genuinely was trying to characterize consumers on behalf of its clients. As a result, I’ve got an emotional connection with the discipline (hey, it put food on my table during the mid-‘90s.)
When telemarketing bozos imply that they are interested in my opinion, and then segue into what is clearly a canned sales pitch after a few cursory questions, I get irked. Especially when the message comes through — and with canned pitches, it does — that my opinions really don’t matter after all.
