Tuesday, 4 December 2007

Target Marketing

I got an email today at work that was offering to re-enamel my bath! A bit strange as, unsurprisingly, the office doesn't have a bath. Worse than that, it was sent to info@centurion-ms.co.uk so it lacked any kind of targeting. If I was being generous I could give them credit as at least they are in the south of England like me.

Why is it that so many companies don't understand that marketing, and particularly email marketing, must be focused, specific and relevant. This is so easy to do - marketing lists are easily purchased, and software to manage campaigns is not expensive. They have obviously put a lot of effort into this but the results have to end up disappointing.

Sadly for them, their good looking and well formatted email got filed in the bin.

Saturday, 1 December 2007

Global warming and the generations

I pick my daughter up from school 2 or three times per week and on one journey home this week we got talking about global warming. The conversation was sparked by a radio article covering a recent announcement that the situation was worse then previously thought.

She told me that all the talk of global warming frightened her and that if you listened to the news there was little to do to stop it. We, as a family, try to minimise our carbon footprint by reducing use, buying local, recycling etc etc - not the best, but certainly far from the worst. However, she hadn't put it together that this was our way of helping reduce global warming. We talked about what we are doing and agreed that if everyone did their bit it was a good step in the right direction.

When it comes to the generations, I found it an interesting thought that the 'Traditionals' created the problem, the 'boomers' continued the process but feel guilty and realise something needs doing, 'Xers' know the solution must start NOW but love all the stuff, so it seems left to the 'Ys' to turn it around. Here was my 'Y' frightened and a bit confused!