Stop Sending Me Junk Mail!

In terms of marketing strategy, I would also give this postcard a C+. I’m pretty sure that the desired result of this mailing is to stimulate listings. I think the agent wants us to call her and ask her to help us sell our house. But the postcard doesn’t say that, it just invites us to compare our home to the details and price of a neighbor’s newly listed home. In theory, we will call her if we decide that we want to sell our house, but don’t you think she’s more likely to achieve the desired result if she states her objective more clearly?

Now, I’ll grant you that might be perceived as too pushy for a postcard. But when I followed the “call to action” and visited the Web page for this home—using all three of the contact options—I still didn’t find a single element of “asking for the order.” Nor did I find any means of capturing my contact information. All in all, I think this “cross-media marketing program” will go down as an underachiever at best.

What Is This?

As noted, this postcard also features a QR Code. The printing industry is very excited about QR Codes, but it’s my belief that most civilians—remember, that’s my term for people who don’t have professional knowledge of our industry—don’t have a clue about them.

To corroborate that, I took the postcard with me when I went out on errands this morning, and asked 10 people (who looked like they might be homeowners, since that was the target market for this program) if they knew what the black/white square on the postcard was and what to do with it. Only two of the 10 gave me even a remotely accurate answer—and neither of them had a reader app on their cell phones.

Granted, it’s a very small sample, but here’s what you should learn from this market research: Marketers need to tell their targets what a QR Code is and what they should do with it. “This is a QR (Quick Response) Code. Your “smartphone” has the capability to scan it to take you immediately to a website where you can learn more about our product/service. Go to the app store for your phone and search on ‘QR code reader’. Any of a number of free (and immediately downloadable) apps will allow you to use this QR Code to its full potential.” Is there any reason why that couldn’t have been printed on this postcard?

I have more to say about how of this all might have been done more effectively, but I don’t have room for it in this column. Let’s see if you can figure out how to find it! (If you can't access the QR code that accompanies this article, you can go to http://www.myprintresource.com/article/10255164/.)

Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, Cary, NC; a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact Dave by phone at 800-325-9634; by fax at 919-363-4069; or by email at dmf@davefellman.com. Visit his website at www.davefellman.com. See the ad for Dave’s products and services in this issue.