Eric Weaver, writing on his blog Ad-Verse has crafted, hands down, the best article on why direct marketers are still stuck in the dark ages and why the practice is, as Weaver calls it, “A science of stupidities.” While we’ve long known many marketers are, in fact, still holding signs up and grunting incessantly in front of cave men’s doorways, never before have we read such a concise diatribe against the practice of direct marketing.
Weaver sat in on an American Marketing Association webcast and was shocked to hear how the practice is still clueless about the rise in consumer control and it’s so-over tactics to “break through these barriers” as if it were a marketers right to deliver its message whether or not a consumer chose to hear it. Capyuring the essence of the conference call, Weaver listened to the speaker say, “How do you insure your email gets through the spam filters the customer has deployed?” and properly reacted wishing he could scream into the phone, “Are you fucking insane? Do you actually hear what you’re saying?” Apparently, many marketers still live in the dark ages and have not realized most consumers have left them in the dust, ignoring their inane blather.
Not one to just bitch about something without offering solution, Weaver provides eleven important steps direct marketers and marketers alike can take to pull their head out of their asses and act in a way that might actually increase the likelihood their blather will stop sounding like blather and start sounding like something an actual person would actually want to listen to.
