Moron Marketers Rationalize Guessing Your Email Address

from the wake-up-already dept

And people wonder why marketers have a bad name. The Direct Marketing Association, which still hasn't figured out that annoying and intrusive marketing is bad marketing continues to try to rationalize why it endorses techniques that only help lazy marketers do a bad job. The point of good marketing is to find out what people want, and then provide it to them. The point of bad marketing is to push products people don't want on as many people as possible. Now, the Direct Marketing Association is saying it's okay for companies you buy from to try to figure out your email address and spam you, even if you didn't give them your address. They say it's okay for companies to buy lists or to even guess your email address, because they believe that you'd obviously want to hear from them, despite not giving them your contact info. When people point out that this is information that wasn't given to the companies, the DMA responds by saying the response rates when they ask for information is very low. Most normal thinkers would realize this probably means people don't want the companies to have their info. A good marketer, in fact, would realize exactly that (because the good marketer's job is to understand what people want and don't want). Instead, the bad marketers at the DMA believe that low response rates mean they have to figure out some other way to spam you.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    w.h., 1 Mar 2004 @ 7:17pm

    No Subject Given

    The problem is they get it wrong. Often.

    Somehow, my mother's identify maps to my email address.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      thecaptain, 2 Mar 2004 @ 6:11am

      Re: No Subject Given

      Often?

      There is very little most marketers get right, much less right often.

      I mean, they think we WANT this kind of crap.

      I'm thinking I want a piece of the drug concession to those guys...because it seems to me most marketers and reality haven't collided in a LONG time.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Mar 2004 @ 10:51am

    No Subject Given

    if they weren't selling the products, they would stop the spam

    it is not a huge margin, but people do reply to these spam emails, and until they stop.. the spam will continue

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rajpaul, 2 Mar 2004 @ 6:04pm

    SPAM news IS SPAM!!!

    Attend to this: SPAM news is SPAM!!! I waste more time dealing with SPAM news (SPAMEWS) than with actual SPAM.

    SPAM news is spam and should be stopped. I am working on a a program that will filter out SPAMEWS

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.