Bad Marketing even in This Economy

Written By Ted Grigg

You would think that marketers would do a better job in this economy. But poor marketing decisions live on in spite of today's unforgiving marketplace.

Here's a specific example.

During Thanksgiving, my mother who lives in a rest home without transportation in a small East Texas town received a Penney's catalog. She asked me to buy her a $450 leather coat that was on sale for $179. So I told her I would get the coat for her since she has no means of transportation.

Living about three hours away, I told her I would order the coat online and have it shipped directly to her.

My wife and I have bought items online almost exclusively for the last five years. This is particularly helpful in a large city like Dallas because shopping at any store here immediately after Thanksgiving is not something we look forward to. We would compete with hundreds of shoppers waiting in a long line to purchase clothes.

So I went online to purchase the coat. I was also going to buy about $200 worth of other clothes since everything was on sale.

But the coat and all catalog items on sale were not available online! So I ended up spending zero dollars.

The catalog did not allow me to purchase any of the items online or by phone insisting that I go to the store from 4 AM to noon the day after Thanksgiving to take advantage of the sale. I'm sure the store hoped to lure me to the store location thinking I would buy more if I showed up at their store location.

This requirement backfired on them.

It not only angered me since I made a promise to my mother I could not keep, but it left a lingering bad taste in my mouth. Here was a retailer that required me to buy an item THEIR way instead of MY way.

The learning?

Don't force your customers to change their buying habits hoping they will buy more if they shop in a way they do not regularly do it. Customer expectations always trump the way the store wants to do business. Doing so will only cost them sales and obliterate customer good will.

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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