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September 24, 2005
Another Ugly Marketing Secret: The Senseless Death of Trees Confirmed
Anyone in marketing for any length of time has seen dozens (if not hundreds) of skids of printed marketing, collateral, disclosure and IR materials tipped into the dumpster due to things such as changing industry or government regulations, fluid product specifications, and re-envisioned sales channels, as well as plain old bad planning and stupidity. But apparently that's just the tip of the iceberg. According to the The American Marketing Association's CMM Forum as much as 90 percent of the materials marketing creates for sales goes unused in the field. Even more amazingly, this study claims that over 97 percent of these materials are irrelevant to the customers they were intended to attract.
Frankly, I'm astounded. I know many corporate marketing departments resist the push to quantify and measure performance, but this is ridiculous, even if it's off by 50 percent. Let's all say it together: The purpose of marketing is to sell our (and our clients) products and services. More of them to more people more often. Not to protect turf, or to create self-congratulatory designs that look great but are worth less than the trees which were destroyed to create it. The point of what marketers do is to inform, educate and motivate their audiences. Pretty tough to do if you have no clue what you're trying to accomplish...
Any marketing Touchpoint - print, verbal, web, personal, retail environment, etc. - is a COMPLETE WASTE unless it is created with a) an understanding of what customer issues (want, need, desire) it is addressing and b) it successfully removes real barriers to progress, driving them through the sales process and the Customer Relationship Lifecycle, turning prospects into customers, satisfied customers into loyal customers, and loyalty customers into advocates.
How do you figure this stuff out? Pretty basic. Know your customers. Know your competition. And know your Lifecycle. And after this is figured out, then find the most cost effective way to communicate, and track it. Maybe you do to have to kill a tree or two. But at least let them die on the cross of increased sales and informed customers...
Posted by at 24.09.2005 08:05 | Permalink
Comments
These statistics are incredible; thank you very much for providing them and calling attention to this painful waste of natural and professional resources. What recommendations do you offer to clients or marketing departments that feel, accurately or innacurately, that their value and effectiveness is measured by the quantity of collateral materials they produce? ...just wondering how you would answer this question; I find myself answering it periodically and wonder how my peers frame their responses.
Posted by: Jason at September 27, 2005 4:05 PM
Jason, I agree that this is an issue no one tends to think about. Imagine how many redundant notices in the mail you get from a service provider, or credit card applications you never requested... I am pretty sure the postage, paper, envelopes, and even the ink used for printing could cost upwards of a million dollars quarterly. The ratio of those actually responding or even reading these bulk mailings is so low, that the companies sending them would probably be better off not sending them in the first place. They would save so much. They could donate their savings to a cause. The victims of Katrina or Wilma or whichever is next could benefit 10 fold from a fraction of the money saved from not sending out that extra "Thank you note"
Ah, the uphill battle of Corporate America!
A recommendation I would love to see taken into consideration is: Ask yourself (the company wasting paper) what is the value of this mailing? If it shows a viable ROI, then proceed to mail. If it honestly doesn't scream "I will be valued by the recipient!" Then cancel production, cancel printing and save our depleting supple of this natural resource everyone takes for granted.
Posted by: Patrick at October 26, 2005 11:49 AM