Marketing Dollars

For those of you who don’t also follow Ouida’s blog (the one who strong-armed me into creating my new blog…which I am actually kind of digging), she had blogged, several posts ago, about a letter she received from her insurance company. More specifically, how this letter seemed to be a good example of a poor allocation of marketing dollars. You can read the post here, if you are interested.

After reading her post, I started to take more notice of advertising that is completely wasted on me. Since my job IS marketing, I am always noticing good marketing, but crappy marketing usually gets chunked right in the trash without a second glance.

I have these two…two and a half items to share:

1)  I got a card from Nationwide. A card, as in a greeting card: glossy, heavy stock, four-color, flowers, “handwriting” font on the envelope, the whole shebang. Oh how I wish I had saved it so I could scan it and share it with you! They were sharing with me how they are such a wonderful insurance company because of their “accident forgiveness.” 

Here’s the rub on their whole “accident forgiveness” spiel: there’s this thing called the “North Carolina Safe Driver Incentive Plan.” It’s a North Carolina Department of Insurance thing, not specifically a Nationwide Insurance thing. As long as you don’t have any accidents on your record in the past…three years, I believe, and your claim is under $1500, you don’t get any points on your license. Regardless of your insurance company.

Plus – Dudes, I already know about it. Remember that small accident I had last year that you forgave? Thanks! 

2)  I received an email today at work. They were trying to sell me talent management software. Helloooo! One glance at my email address will tell you that I work for a talent management software company. Clean up your database! Additionally, I am always quite honest when I fill out my title on forms. Find me a company that puts their marketing team members in charge of finding their talent management software.

2.5)  Finally, I’m not going to count this as a whole example because there is no way this company could possibly have known, but: I pulled a piece of Christopher’s mail out of the mailbox yesterday. They were advertising “FREE $100 gift card to WALMART for your participation.” This to the guy who, in his own words, “would rather be hit in the face with a baseball bat” than go to Walmart. Just had to laugh.