Posted by Gary M | Posted in Personal Insight | Posted on 16-07-2010
Tags: A shift in advertising, Postage
Reading some comments posted this week on various social media sites, then seeing the recent proposal by the postal service to increase rates again leads me to this question: “When are businesses going to ‘get it’?”
What happens when MOST people get irrelevant, impersonal mail? It goes in the trash without being opened, at least in my house. Let’s then say that stamps get to fifty cents. There’s a nice, round number. Fifty-cent pieces are nice, round coins.
Imagine walking down the sidewalk and noticing a penny on the ground…Do we bend over to pick it up these days? My kids would, but honestly, I’d walk right by. How about a quarter? Now THAT gets my attention. A quarter is one-fifth the value of a soda at the local convenience store…It’s the equivalent of a 20% discount! So, what if there was a fifty-cent piece on the ground? Goes without saying, right? Not sure about you, but I’m DIVING for that sucker!
At what point does a stamp become a liability? At what point are businesses forced into alternative methods of connecting to customers and prospects? And at what point are businesses going to tailor timely, relevant messages to specific groups of people instead of sending the same mass mail message to everyone without regard for their interests?
While you walk around pondering those thoughts, can I follow you and pick up all those 50-cent pieces you’re throwing on the ground?