Oct 30, 2005
Posted by Mike in Advertising,Marketing
0 Comments
This is Why Everyone Hates Marketing People
It’s been a while since I’ve posted: it’s been a rough couple of months. My father was seriously ill for a couple of months, and passed away in Pennsylvania on October 5, 2005. Needless to say, between trips to PA, and his passing, some things had to slip, and BrunswickMediaBlog was one of them.
With all of the details to work out, there was one “professionally interesting/disturbing” thing that came to the forefront: companies trolling the obituaries to market to the families of the recently deceased. Now (in jest) I refer to myself as the “resident sleazy marketing guy” in my bio on the Brunswick Media Services website, but I had no idea how sleazy marketing could really get.
On my return back to New Jersey after the funeral, I had two (2) pieces of mail selling me “discount” headstones for my father’s grave. My name had appeared in my father’s obituary but not my address, the fine folks at BOTH of the discount headstone places had obviously found my name in the Star Ledger version of the obituary (my father spent most of his life here in NJ, so the obit ran here as well as in PA), found my address, and HAND ADDRESSED the envelope to send me their marvelous sales material. (**Note to the company that sent the postcard** “DO NOT PAYLESS…” should be “DO NOT PAY LESS”, two words not one.)
Another interesting/disturbing aside: I’ve received two of these direct mail pieces, my mother received one (from another company in PA), but my sister, who lives in PA has not received any. Does that mean that they target the son of the deceased and not the daughter? Perhaps they believe that, as a guy, I wouldn’t be as offended at their targeting practices. Maybe they just think that since I’m the guy, I’d be the one making all of the decisions.
Let’s review. These companies are:
- Opportunistic slime buckets who troll the obituaries
- Illiterate? (At best, they just need to proofread.)
- Sexist?
This is why everyone hates marketing people; they see opportunistic sleazebags like the monument folks, and paint everyone in the field with the same brush. I suppose it’s the same for lawyers, a couple of ambulance chasing slime bags ruin the reputation of an entire profession.
But as tasteless as the headstone peddlers’ tactics are, I’ve got one better. The day after the obituary ran in the paper, my mother received a letter in the mail. It was hand-written (in this very small, almost psychotic-looking handwriting from a member of a cult/church made famous by their members ringing doorbells and handing out magazines.) In the letter, the writer quoted liberally from the Bible about the dead coming back, blah, blah, blah… and suggested that my mother join the cult/church to save her soul. At the risk of offending some potential client, where do these people get off preying on the widow of a man who had only been gone for 2 days? I supposed the recently widowed are psychologically vulnerable at that point, and are relatively “easy pickings” for them. Make no mistake, these people are marketing their cult/church, and are every bit as sleazy as the monument folks, if not more.
Interesting/Disturbing Aside #3:
Brunswick Media Services LLC is the #40 link on Google, for the term “Sleazy Marketing”. Maybe this post will help boost us to the top ten!
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