Direct marketers are an optimistic bunch.
But while optimism can work wonders in a scary economy, some practices may need a face lift, according to “father of direct marketing” Lester Wunderman.
Speaking at the Hudson Valley Direct Marketing Luncheon yesterday, Wunderman said one such practice is privacy and the collection and use of consumer’s personal data.
“We keep sweeping privacy under the rug,” said. Wunderman.
He said marketers are gathering so much data about consumers, which is good but also holds “great danger.” Consumers are wary of receiving promotional letters personalized with their names but offer little else of relevance to that individual. He said the problem lies in marketers and advertisers not using the data that is available to produce relevant offers.
When asked what he thinks about before okaying a headline, he said: “Is anybody going to react to this? Is it about the consumer we’re addressing and the needs of that consumer? And does it deal with some part of that person you know or want to know?”
Asked of his most unusual campaign. Wunderman talked of a client, the former head of the Princeton Alumni Fund, who have ventured off to become a lobsterman in Maine and wanted to sell his live fish and lobsters through the mail. They concocted a campaign to package live lobsters with sea water and sea weed in tin cans; to prepare recipients only had to punch holes in the lid before setting the cans on the stove to cook. While the lobsters did begin to sell, complaints began to crop up too. Some customers weren’t sure if the crustaceans were still alive and became frightened by the thrashing when told to shake up the can to find out.
With that test looking a bit pale, another plan was formed to sell a fish available in New York City. The fish was said to have been the food source that drew settlers to the island. Wunderman’s client caught the fish, smoked them and packaged them up in a transparent envelope. The order form hung from a fish hook in the fish’s mouth. Some 1,000 samples went out and the calls came in, but the response wasn’t as hoped. One woman’s cat had eaten the fish, hook and all, and others had found the promotion somewhat distasteful. The campaign had to be withdrawn.
“He was as crazy as I was,” Wunderman said of his client.
On a more serious note, Wunderman said that the advertising and marketing world is changing, and will continue to change even more with technological advances in interactive marketing that allow consumers to take charge of letting marketers know what they want and when. He said the next generation of successful DMers will be those who “listen” to consumers, noting that consumers will be sending messages to companies and systems will need to be developed to manage that data, as opposed to marketers collecting data themselves.
Wunderman has begun work on his next book, working title “The Once and Future Advertising.” The book will cover the history of advertising as well as look at the future. Wunderman plans to include discussions on the future growth of interactive media, the growth of database advertising, the ongoing empowerment of the consumer and the importance of listening. No publication date has been set.
Wunderman is chairman emeritus and founder of the Wunderman direct marketing agency. He is also chairman and a member of the board of directors at i-Behavior, a provider of database targeting services, and has written two books about the industry, “Being Direct” and “Frontiers of Direct Marketing.”
He was named to the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame in 1983, and in 1997 received the lifetime achievement award from both Direct Marketing Days in New York and the New England Direct Marketing Association.
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