Marketing Campaign that Drives Clients Away, Silently

January 19, 2010 | Tagged marketing best practices | Leave a Comment

In the WSJ De Gustibus section from January 8th 2010, Eric Felten asks, “Do customers really like cash-register charity drives?”

He recounts his story of being asked to give at the cash-register as he was checking out at stores ranging from Brooks Brothers to Safeway over the holidays. And now it’s not just for the holidays. I rarely shop locally as I am a dedicated online shopper. If I can’t buy it online, it doesn’t exist.

But I do still get my groceries locally.

And once a year my regular store asks me to buy a calendar . . . for two months. They aren’t over-the-top or pushy, they simply ask. My back-up grocery store however has a new drive every month. The back-up grocery store used to be my regular grocery store.

Why the change?

I could claim it was the produce, but really it came down to my personal experience in the store. The old regular, now back-up store, was an average place to shop and I felt a bit harassed each month by the new campaign. It took extra energy to go through the check-out line. I began to dread the check-out line.

I didn’t switch because of the campaigns, but thinking about those campaigns keeps me out of the store now that I have a new favorite. Felten remarks that the Brooks Brother campaign is considered popular at Brooks Brothers’ HQ. And he asks, is a lack of complaints indicative of appreciation for the campaign?

The fatal flaw of those now on the cash-register donation bandwagon is assuming that a lack of complaints and even a high level of participation means that your customers LIKE the campaign. They are confusing causation and correlation. Plenty of people will give a few dollars just to assuage minor guilt as they purchase a lovely sweater/chocolate/shoe/whatever for themselves. Okay, so Store 1, Customer 1 . . . win, win, right?

Not so fast.

If the Customer gave to assuage minor guilt, your store is now associated with minor guilt. That won’t hurt up to a certain point, but it will explode in your face after that point. Your “point” will vary. Do you want to do something that “won’t hurt” or would you rather do something that will help tremendously?

WON’T HURT vs WILL HELP

The occasional, “won’t hurt” activity – like eating a hot fudge Sundae on Sunday – might not destroy your diet plans, but done daily, will sink your diet. In either case, the one time offer versus a constant barrage, you are not building your business in a positive direction, just as eating a hot fudge sundae will never help your diet though it might not hurt, just once….

So instead of harassing your customers, involve them in a meaningful way – in THEIR eyes. That means you need to ask them how they want to be engaged. Engage them. It will be the best thing you can do for you and for your client.

Be careful of assuming that just because they aren’t complaining that they are happy. If they aren’t complaining . . . it just means they aren’t complaining. And that’s it. You want them raving. They only way you’ll know they’re raving is . . . when you hear them raving. So shoot for raving!

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