Marketing.Whether or not you agree with me, it’s true that marketing is a necessary aspect of the world. While the word “marketing” puts a taste in some mouths just like “lawyer” or “plastic suergeon,” the profession isn’t inherently bad–I would even argue that the act of spreading a positive message is inherently good–I suppose the bad reputation just comes from the people who pursue their message spreading in repulsive ways. And often, at least for me, traditional often accompanies repulsive.
And being subjected to traditional means of marketing can be painful. Nobody likes being on the receiving end of a sales pitch that sounds like it came out of used car salesman’s mouth–but certain PR firms deem it necessary to treat their products like any old commodity like hair restoration gel or penis enlargement pills.Take this phone call I got the other day as a great example of how not to pitch a product,

“I’m not just the national sales manager, I’m also a customer.”

I talked to the guy who uttered these words for something like 15 minutes. But I can’t tell you his name, what product he was pitching, or much anything else he said.

Why? Because his pitch wasn’t authentic. It was insulting, and it was slimy. Was he talking to me about a product related to bicycles? I don’t know. And the reason I didn’t pay attention to his pitch was because he could have been selling insurance, windows, computers or headsets.
If he’d have treated me from the rider’s approach, I would have listened to him. But instead his pitch closed my ears to his message. And he wasted 15 minutes of my time, and his.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.