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May 22, 2009
A Matter of Perspective: A Banana-licious Holiday Tale
A couple of years ago, I read a story about monkeys and bananas. In somewhat amusing fashion, the author described why bananas were such a perfect fruit, including the fact they came with their own handle to make them easy to eat. That's right...a "handle." It turns out, monkeys eat bananas by holding the stem and peeling from the "top" of the banana. It appears we humans decided that the stem was "easier" to snap off to open the peel, so we reversed the process to our tastes. Alas, it's all a matter of perspective which end of the banana is "up."
It is that way with a lot of marketing lately. As my free time has shrunken over the past years, I look at an increasing amount of marketing as "intrusive", or even "abusive." Newsletters I signed up for years ago, hoping to follow what other companies were doing so I could assess "best practices", have suddenly become annoying. I hit the spam button with frightening regularity.
Of course, on the other side of this dilemma, are the marketers. They are desperately trying to reach a "target" prospect, and feel justified in trying every possible tactic to get my attention. To them, any campaign (online or offline) is justified under the name of "marketing."
Again, it is just a matter of perspective. Only, now, I can easily block these marketers out of my life if they annoy me enough -- at least on the electronic side. And in print, if they piss me off online, they can presume my animosity will gladly extend to their annoying print...where is get the extra satisfaction of wasting more of their money.
Which demonstrates, that while "persepctive" can be invoked, in reality, customers hold almost all the cards when it comes to what is accceptable in marketing. That means, marketing practitioners must work harder than ever to avoid crossing the line and getting blocked (literally and figuratively) from a prospect's radar.
And with that thought...have a happy Memorial Day. 
Posted by jcioban at May 22, 2009 5:31 PM
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