ThinkNick

A very large and successful global organisation is wasting untold amounts of money, creating ill-will amongst its customers and prospects, and helping to perpetuate the bad news stories about poorly-targeted marketing. And it would be so easy to fix.

It’s good practice and common sense, when preparing a direct mail campaign, to check the mailing data against reliable suppression files to remove known goneaways and deceased records. There is a cost for running the suppressions, but it’s substantially less than the cost of producing the pack and then posting it unnecessarily.

In this case though, the marketing department does not hold the budget for postage. They are responsible for the creative and production costs, but not the cost of getting it to the consumer. If they run a suppression, then the cost comes off their marketing budget. So guess what, they don’t run suppressions, because it means they can ‘do more marketing’.

I hardly know where to begin.

They are deliberately sending out marketing communcations to some people who definitely don’t live there any more. They are perpetuating all the bad news stories about mailing dead people. They are wasting the company’s money and its reputation.

The company is getting exactly what it measures – more cost-effective campaigns … as long as you measure ‘cost-effectiveness’ as the cost of production, not cost of response, cost of reputation, or cost to the customer service centre of dealing with the fall-out from the distressed bereaved.

What sort of culture must there be in an organisation that prevents the marketing, data or customer service team from doing the right thing? What sort of message does this behaviour give to the rest of the business?

I wish I knew how to find the person in this organisation who has the authority to put it right.

Running a business on multiple sites creates extra work for the senior management team, and for the boss. Everyone knows this.

What most people forget, is just how much extra work it creates. When different sites have their own history, it’s harder still.

The extra work isn’t so much difficult, as time-consuming. It involves travelling, and talking to people, and sometimes just being there, and being seen. In fact it’s so straightforward that it can be tempting to think it’s not really necessary.

Well, from what I’ve seen, if you want a single company with a single company culture, and a common sense of purpose, there is no short-cut. Plan your travel now. And find someone to manage your desk and your diary.