I’ve always tried, over the 20 plus years, I’ve been writing on marketing to avoid negative articles.
I *try* and avoid the “Here’s bad marketing” articles. Without a recommendation on how it could have been done better, that sort of content really isn’t useful for anyone.
Yesterday afternoon I came home to a really neat example of marketing that doesn’t work.
A breakdown in the chain.
A neat example of how competing interests come into play and how, in 99% of cases, people will act in their own self interest.
So here’s the story:
Raining cats and dogs
(Here’s probably where that “Cats and Dogs” phrase comes from.)
Yesterday, here on the Gold Coast, we had torrential rain. Poured all day.
Been pouring rain all week in fact. Still raining now.
The (junk) mail gets delivered
As I arrived home, bearing in mind it’s been raining solid for 2 days, there sitting in the gutter, with water flowing down, around and over was a rolled up bunch of advertising flyers.
Fifteen flyers. Held together by a rubber band.
Soaked and destroyed.
Just like pretty much every other rolled up bunch of fifteen flyers laying on driveways and grass verges all down the street. All over the neighbourhood.
Wasted opportunity
There’s a wasted opportunity there for those fifteen advertisers.
The reason for the waste is pretty simple.
It’s what I’ve tried to teach about marketing for years.
People will, almost every single time, act in their own best interests
Don’t listen to what people say about your business or your product or your service – see what they do.
The leaflet distributor clearly had his brief to deliver these fifteen flyers on Tuesday, come rain, hail or shine.
So they did.
After all, gotta earn the money.
Even though, I’d guess, 99% of the flyers were wrecked almost instantly.
But they got delivered. The leaflet distributor got paid.
Leaflets are like every other form of advertising
Leaflets are like every other form of advertising – there’s always waste.
We’ve taken massive billboard campaigns at major airports – then the day before the campaign starts, COVID hits and shuts down the airport.
So instead of 250,000 people seeing that billboard that week, it’s three men and a dog.
Ouch.
It’s like any major advertising such as TV commercials. You’ll pay for the ad to be seen by 100,000 people.
But that 98 year old lady who sees the ad whilst sitting in her nursing home chair, probably isn’t interested in your sale on Dyson vacuum cleaners!
The Trick
The trick is to reduce waste as much as possible – and have suppliers who work to provide the best value possible.
Even if that means delaying the leaflet drop a few days.
Cheers
