The Tug of War between Consumers and Marketers
April 22, 2005
As a marketing manager using direct marketing techniques, I'm very sensitive to respecting how my prospects and customers want to be contacted. But it's not possible for me to 'leave them alone' as much as they say they prefer. As respectfully as possible, I have to intrude into their activities, or my business would grow at an unacceptably slow rate. So there's constant pressure on me to make my messages as valuable as possible, to make sure that I never waste my prospects' time.
Yankelovich has just completed a new research study that shows how ambivalent people feel about advertising. David Kaplan of Mediapost has an excellent quote from Yankelovich president J. Walker Smith:
Link: MediaPost: Consumers [say] We'd Pay Extra for Better Ad Techniques by David Kaplan.
"Consumers are anxious to be engaged by marketers in a more satisfying and compelling way," Smith said. "Marketing resistance is not a desire to stop shopping altogether. Consumers just want a better way to interact with marketers. Smarter, technologically empowered, time-starved consumers want marketing that shows more respect for their time and attention. Consumers don't feel that the current practice of marketing fulfills this requirement."