Subscribe to RSS 2.0No good deed goes unpunished
I suppose books are sort of the ultimate soft-sell. We print them and then we just, you know, put them on a shelf. They don't bleep or flash. We don't hand out samples of them on street corners. We wait for the reader to get a bus into town and hunt through the racks until they find one they like. Compare that with, say, cold-calling. You interrupt someone during their dinner and try not to let them get a word in edgeways while you reel off your pitch at them. Popups and their Flash equivalents are a little bit the same too: they cover the webpage you're trying to read as a way of holding your attention hostage while they try to sell you something. What I don't really understand is, who goes for that sort of marketing? It must work or it would have died out by now. But isn't everyone as turned off by it as me?
Anyway, I've made it my policy not to take up any offer pitched to me, unsolicited, over the phone because I don't want to help sustain those tactics with my custom. I've also signed up for the Telephone Preference Service, which does help cut the number of cold-calls I get - except that I got tricked recently into triggering a fresh deluge of cold-calls. What happened was this: a 'market survey' company called me and they happened to catch me in a good mood. They wanted to ask me some questions that would 'take no more than five minutes' (untrue). Now it seemed to me that market surveys are a good thing. If I'm going to complain when companies misread their customers' wishes, maybe I should be prepared to contribute some feedback. So I answered some questions along the lines of 'would you consider switching energy provider if you found a cheaper alternative?' and 'would you consider using a comparison service if you were trying to find cheap double-glazing?'. Only afterwards did I realise that any time I said 'yes' I had apparently 'expressed interest' in having various companies contact me to offer their products. Sneaky. But of course I'm more determined than ever not to have these firms profit from their trickery. So who is it that ensures the high-pressure deceptive marketing pays off?
Comments: 5
This reminds me of a dilbert cartoon a long while ago - 'the best customer to target is a stupid person with money'. And that's all the unsolicited ads do - they don't expect to catch the intelligent, rational people, just the minority (its something like a 0.0001% conversion rate I think for spam), just the people gullible enough to fall for a bad offer and give them money. In most cases, they only need one person out of 50,000 to buy double glazing and cover their costs, and even if they don't they can make good money on the side by selling your details on to another company, I'm sure I saw somewhere recently that your preferences and personal details can be worth up to £100 with enough detail in it!
Posted by: Pete Richardson on May 5, 2010 12:44 PM
I did have to sit through Jane Green telling me about her new book, Girl Friday, while trying to watch TV last night.
I believe there is also a mail preference service that can cut down the amount of unsolicited junk mail you receive. Keeps paper out of my house AND saves some trees.
Posted by: Emma H on May 5, 2010 01:34 PM
Just mention to the marketing goons you’ve already signed up to TPS and they’ll soon put the phone down. Another trick is to say your house is rented and you have to consult the landlord. I still get calls too despite registering and even get calls asking for the previous home owner who in actual fact, has died. How bad is that? I just put the phone down, or better still have the answering machine vet the calls so there’s no real reason to speak to any goof trying to get hold of me who I don’t know. Liberating.
Incidentally, and I could be way off the mark here, but I’m pretty sure there’s a more proactive approach to selling books than sticking them on shelves?
Posted by: Wayne Blackhurst on May 5, 2010 03:02 PM
I have a simple way of dealing with those sorts of calls. I simply say "We're not interested. Bye" and the phone is put down.
I feel a little mean doing this, someone is trying to earn some money, but I'm usually having my dinner or doing something important. And another thing, I like eating my dinner in peace!
Posted by: Verity Ann on May 5, 2010 06:44 PM
Oh that is freaking tricky and I'd guess not quite illegal, but pretty darn close as the marketing regulations are now so tough on expressions of interest and opting out during a campaign. I wonder if there is some loophole if you're running a survey rather than a marketing campaign - would have thought that got ironed out in the last set of regulation updates. Thanks for the post though because I've been wondering why the telephone service didn't seem to be stopping us from egtting cold calls.
Posted by: Jodie on May 25, 2010 04:24 PM