The danger of relationship assumptions in business

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It’s been a while since my last blog and too tell you the truth I’ve been real busy with all sorts of projects, and this site needs updating soon, so I hope to be back blogging on a more regular basis and with a new frame work as there are exciting but painful times ahead which just can’t be missed and shared.

Making the wrong assumption about the development of a business relationship and the type of relationship you have with a customer can be a big turn off.

It started off as I was obsessing (ranting) the other day about how banks had given the OK to the most pathetic and patronising piece of advertising I have ever been exposed too. It was aimed at helping customers to open a savings account…yes the same kind of prudent advice that banks don’t even take on board themselves. It assumes that you have either not be on planet earth for the last five years, never had a bad financial experience or a nasty run in with a bank at some kind…..which does not leave many of us I know.

So then my copy of Sales Promotion Magazine lands on my desk and I’m flicking through and a column from Mike Banes, Director of marketing and business development at the Direct Marketing Association grabs my attention, so I stop and read as these guys usually know a thing or two about marketing and low and behold…he’s ranting too.

You see he had received a bunch of promotional mailers which were all exactly the same apart from one. Just one stood out that seemed promising as it was personalised, value driven and well, different. Only it bombed big time. The box contained a packet of love hearts from a major British-based holiday resort chain with an accompanying letter declaring its was “Because we love you so much” and pledged entry into a prize draw if I rang them or visited their website. Not only was it not different says Mike, but as he didn’t even know them he was turned off by the fact that they had assumed some kind of intimate relationship.

Strangely enough I received an auto-responder message the other day that assumed because I spent five seconds looking at a post on a networking site that “you are obviously a lover of”…it was very off putting as I don’t love anything about what was been discussed, merely intrigued by the content.

Mike finished off by saying that it’s not just about changing the packaging, but making strategic decisions to do things differently to succeed.

Mike I could not agree more!

It just amazes me how the single touch or one hit approach still seems to prevail in the light of falling response rates and low return advertising. There is little planning, integration and strategy behind any of it and you know what lazy marketing equals bad results.

From Business Growth Development, post The danger of relationship assumptions in business