In this past week's mailbag, I found two less than stellar pieces.

The first from a leading apparel retailer hit on one of my pet peeves: grammar. "Our sporty styles are where it's at." This cutesy, trendy line makes no sense and it's grammatically incorrect. Perhaps, I am not in their main demographic and this language is readily used by those that are in this retailer's target audience. Yet, this poor use of the English language only proliferates when a major store readily uses it.

The second example hit another nerve, but for a different reason. I have asked this particular vendor, a major home security monitoring service, numerous times to remove my name and address from their solicitation files. This company chooses to ignore my repeated requests and continues to waste its marketing dollars by sending me solicitations to reactivate service with them.

Stay tuned for finer direct marketing examples next time....

Diary of a Direct Marketer

I love getting mail, all kinds of mail. Some people dread going to the mailbox and can't wait to dump all of the "junk mail." I love to see what companies and organizations are trying to get me to do. I like to evaluate the effectiveness of the mail that I get. I also love e-mail and look for the catchiest promotions and the most intriguing subject lines. My plan for this blog is to open my mailboxes (e-mail and postal) and share with my readers what I find. In a tough economy, the companies who are spending their direct marketing dollars in the most effective way, will be the most successful. Those who curtail their marketing dollars now will be forgotten in the longer term. So, keep the mail coming and I'll be checking the mail often.