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shape theagenda

“You talkin’ to me?”MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS IN THE AGE OF CONSENT

The CharteredInstitute of Marketing

www.shapetheagenda.comA Cambridge

Marketing CollegeAlumni Reprint

shape theagenda You talkin’ to me?

© The Chartered Institute of Marketing January 2004

Message fatigueThe modern consumer is under siege.From the moment we wake up to themoment our heads hit the pillow, weare bombarded with unsolicitedmarketing messages.

Breakfast is served with on-packpromotions, and a barrage of radioand TV ads. The postman comes withunwanted junk mail. The onceunpartisan taxi or bus to work isbranded with a sponsor’s livery. Athome or the office, email inboxesbulge with unasked for, and oftenunsavoury, spam. Even our mobiletelephones brandish branded textmessages.

The result: information overload;marketing which fails to connect.

Consider this:

•The average consumer is exposedto around 1,500 advertisingmessages every day1

•A third of all direct mail is thrownaway without being opened, andnearly 60% is thrown away withoutbeing read2

•In America, experts believe thespam epidemic is now interferingwith the country’s productivity, asworkers waste their employers timedeleting unsolicited emails

•Microsoft blocks around 2.4 billionjunk emails a day, some 80% ofthe messages that hit MSN servers.BT Openworld estimates that of the25 million emails that it monitors41% is spam3

So how did we reach a situation inwhich marketing communication is apointless deluge rather than atargeted stream?

The most obvious cause is mediaproliferation. For both the consumerand the marketer the choice ofsatellite, cable or terrestrial channelsis overwhelming. New media haveadded to the noise. The Internet andmobile phones, for example, beganpurely as communication tools, buthave been hijacked by lazy, roguemarketers. Banner ads, pop-up ads,unsolicited emails and SMS textadvertising are now the norm.

Media proliferation has beenaccompanied by audiencefragmentation. As media choiceexpands and usage patterns evolve,marketers have to work harder andharder for a share of consumerattention. What worked in the pastno longer presses the right consumerbuttons – witness the decliningimpact of TV advertising. In the questfor attention, advertisers have tobecome ever more inventive, findingnew ways to reach their audience –adverts on petrol pumps, talkingposters in pub toilets, tattoos onstudents’ foreheads and so on.4

Yet none of this alters thefundamental fact: Interruption hasbecome intrusion. Customersincreasingly resent the intrusion andignore the marketing messages. Evenworse, many customers are being putoff brands by inappropriate andunwanted communications. In theUnited States some 54 million peoplehave already signed up to a national‘do not call’ register. In one survey,25% of people said they were usingemail less because there was somuch junk.5

TOOLS OF MASSCOMMUNICATION

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Technology is increasingly being usedby consumers as a shield to protecttheir privacy from unwantedincursions. An arms race isdeveloping as consumers discovernew ways of blocking the noise out.Already, PVRs (Personal VideoRecorders, such as TiVO), enableconsumers to cut out TV adverts.

And governments are now puttingtheir weight behind customer privacywith new legislation. As of 11December 2003, the Privacy andElectronic CommunicationsRegulations Act (PECR) means thatUK marketers require consumer optinto send unsolicited electronicmessages. In the US a similar trendis emerging. In November 2003, forexample, AT&T was fined $780,000for bothering householders on thecompany’s own ‘do not call’ register.6

AT&T is the first company to fall foulof a ban on calling Americans who’vespecifically asked to be left in peace.

All this has massive implications formarketing. Indeed, marketing astraditionally practised is becomingincreasingly illegal.

For un-reconstituted (or unrepentant)marketers, a communications crisislooms. By 2006, it is predicted thatmore than 20 billion spam messageswill be sent daily worldwide – leadingto communications gridlock.7 Smartmarketers will recognise thateveryone loses in the current war.They will set about winning thepeace. They will robustly recognisethat a crisis can mean an opportunity.

And, if marketers do not regulatethemselves, governments willlegislate instead – as they arealready beginning to do. Marketinghas always flirted with the boundariesbetween legal and illegal, and up tonow governments have not pursuedcases that flout data protection orprivacy laws. That situation ischanging – successful marketers willbe those who test the boundarieswithout breaking them.

Only Connect“Human beings… are finally rebelling!”says Cathy Ace, a consultant onmarketing communications at theUniversity of British Columbia. “Weare used to perceiving and filteringmillions of pieces of information eachday. But we have never before beenbombarded in the way we are now.How do we get our messages to theright audiences in a timely mannerthat cuts through the clutter? That’sthe challenge.” 8

We predict that by 2010, companieswill be able to communicate with farfewer people and collect much lessinformation on individuals than theycurrently can. Data protection lawswill become more onerous. We aremoving from a communications free-for-all to an age of consent.

Managing consent is the newmarketing imperative. The concept ofpermission marketing is well knownand passively accepted, but inertiaand habit mean that interruptionmarketing is still the norm. It’s easyto design a pop-up advert; it’s cheapto send unsolicited emails. Direct mailand cold calling are still done bycompanies because they’ve alwaysdone it. We need to enter the age ofconsent across the media spectrum.This will involve a shift from a modelof intrusion to one of communicatingand building relationships throughcollaboration.

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High Impact CollaborationThe new collaborative model has anumber of characteristics. It is:

• Customer initiated

• Based on consensual relationships(trust-driven and permissive)

• Maintained through appropriatedialogue (two-way and ongoing)

• Built on mutual value

• Neutral across media

• Cost effective (aimed at improvingefficiency).

In traditional marketingcommunications, marketers intrudeon the time and consciousness oftheir target audience. In the newmodel, enlightened marketerscollaborate with customers to build adialogue that creates value for bothparties. The key to this is consent –doing things on customers’ terms,when they want it, where theywant it and how they want it.

The new model also has profoundimplications for media planning. Itrequires a neutral approach to themedia mix which eschews formulaicways to use media to create acampaign. Instead, the new modeltakes an objective view on the mosteffective media to deliver marketingmessages that are relevant, timelyand welcome. This requires new waysof working among marketers and thecreative agencies. Here, too,collaboration will be critical.

MOVING FROM INTRUSIONTO COLLABORATION

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The idea that firms will collaboratewith customers – and vice versa – isalready gaining currency boththeoretically and practically.

“We are moving to a new form ofvalue creation, when value is notcreated by the firm and exchangedwith the customer, but when value isco-created by the consumers and thecompany. So the first question is: howdo you go from a unilateral view ofvalue creation by the company, to co-creation of value by consumers?” saysCK Prahalad, co-author of Competingfor the Future. “Co-creation of valueis a very different thing from beingconsumer oriented. This is not thefirm targeting consumers and beingmore sensitive to them. It is aboutenabling consumers to be an equalproblem solver, so that collectivelythey create value, and collectivelythey extract value. So that theconsumer is helping the company tocreate value and also taking valueaway by extracting value througheither explicit or implicit bargains.”9

At a practical level, according toGraham Lancaster of theCommunications Agencies Federation(CAF), if a brand can engage with itscustomers, “then the customer maycollude with the brand, be receptiveand even seek out its messages andconspicuously wear/display itsbrands”. Consumer collaboration canthereby leverage a brand to a levelthat is intangibly higher thancompetitors’.

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And because consumers do not viewactive collaboration as advertising –they see it as news or current affairs– they do not screen it out or rejectit; the message gets through.

Making the MoveHow do you turn this into reality?We have identified five key ways tomove from intrusion to collaboration:

1. Self-segmentation

2. Open planning

3. Creating messages that matter

4. Managing legal boundaries

5. Measuring return on communications

INTRUSION MODEL COLLABORATIVE MODELScattergun Consent-based dialogueSeller benefits Mutual benefitsMedia constrained Media transparentInvasion of privacy Respect for privacyPoor innovation Radical innovationImpact unknown Return on communications known

1. SELF-SEGMENTATION

Professor Malcolm McDonald, fromthe UK’s Cranfield School ofManagement, believes that thebiggest problem facing marketers “isthe same as it always has been –pointless, wasted, profligatecommunications”10 McDonald assertsthat CRM (Customer RelationshipManagement) views thecommunication challenge the wrongway round. “It should be CMR(Customer Managed Relationships)encouraging the customers in aparticular segment to communicatewith us using the channels preferredby them.”

This is the heart of the issue. Puttingcustomers in charge offers a route toself-segmentation. Customers willidentify the segments they belong to,providing a far richer supply ofpersonal data than could ever bepossible using traditionalsegmentation techniques.

Engaging the customer’s consent andrespecting privacy leads to successfulcommunications with a high rate ofreturn – the diagram overleaf showswhy this is the case.

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Rings of ConsentEach ring represents a level ofcustomer intimacy or consent. Likepersonal space, each level can onlybe accessed if the consumer gives hisor her consent.

The outer rings represent unsolicitedmessages – billboards, radioadvertising, etc. They equate topublic places – channels unlikely tobe affected by privacy legislation ortechnology filters. Their effectivenessis also limited. The consumer isaware of them, but does not act onthem and is not consciously aware ofthem having any effect.

The middle rings represent marketingthat the customer has acted on –direct mail they’ve responded to,loyalty schemes or store cards theyhave signed up to, for example.

The inner layer represents messages,or information, requested by thecustomer. The customer embracesthis information and does notconsciously regard it to be marketing;it is part of a collaborative,consensual relationship. This is thelayer that the marketer of the futurewill aim for.

Our model emphasises the customerat the centre of communications –not as a target at the end of aprocess. By considering the customeras the pivot, he or she can beencouraged to trust, embrace andwelcome the messages beingreceived. If such trust cannot becreated, the cost of anycommunications will outweigh thebenefits, as the customer refuses tolisten to any more fragmented piecesof information.

The corollary of this is thatcompanies need to find new, moreaccurate and more collaborative waysof gathering data. In the future,companies will increasingly buypersonal data from customers, eitherin exchange for benefits or formoney. Such transactions will be oneway to persuade customers to selfsegment. However, they will be nomore than an opening move in a longcourtship – akin to buying a potentialpartner a drink, with a view togetting to know them better.

Long-term success will be built onmutual interests and values ratherthan bribes. In Sweden, for example,a mobile phone company offers

CUSTOMER

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customers free call time if they listento an advertisement. This is onlyeffective if the message is meaningfulto the customer. Similar incentivescould be offered to consumers willingto share their personal data.Alternatively, the first move could beinitiated by the customer. Where acustomer has a strong affinity for abrand they may welcome theopportunity to self-segment.Companies which create effectivechannels to allow customers to informthem of their preferences will benefitfrom this process. So, for example, acustomer might register interest inreceiving information on all newproduct launches.

Data could also be sold for cash. In2002, for instance, Britishentrepreneur Chris Downs gatheredall his personal data and auctioned iton eBay, the electronic auctionservice. The data amounted to 800pages of personal information,including lists of everything he hadbought from the supermarketSainsbury’s for three years; mobilephone account details; and bankstatements. In all, there were 422interested buyers at the auction. Theinformation was eventually sold for£150. Needless to say, data gatheredin this way is more accurate, detailedand can help marketers a great dealmore than current methods of datacollation.

What Chris Downs and otherconsumer activists recognise is thataccess (to customer information) isan increasingly valuable commodity.Companies that are prepared to pay(with cash or other benefits) will havemuch more information aboutcustomers without invading theirprivacy. They can then target themwith products or services they knowthe consumer is interested in, insteadof having to guess from broadcustomer demographics.

Such self-segmentation is one of thekeys to communicating in the age of

consent. While consent is passive,self-segmentation is active. Self-segmenting customers actively listen,and want to be involved. They canalso co-create value.

Take organic food, for example.Supermarkets are currently unclearabout whether customers want it,how much they want it – and howmuch of a premium they’re preparedto pay for it. It remains largelyguesswork. Self-segmentingcustomers could clarify the situationfor supermarkets. In recognising thecustomer as the owner of his or herdata, a significant step has beenmade towards the customer allowingthe marketer to engage. This isfundamental to creating a consensualrelationship. The self-segmentingcustomer controls the flow ofinformation and increasingly will beprotected by legislation.

How marketers can best buildeffective systems – and offers – toencourage customers to self-segmentis one of the issues on which thisAgenda paper aims to promotedebate. (This and techniques toidentify and build communities will bevital tools in the future.)

British Gas (BG), for example, hasmanaged to persuade 100,000 of itscustomers to sign up to receive e-bills. The incentive for the consumerto go digital was the promise of anannual £10 reduction in their gasbills. BG claims that by 2005 a millioncustomers will have opted for e-billing. This is a modest target withonly a 6% customer conversion rate.Not only will this move BG’s costs, butit also gives the company a self-segmented group of customers, whoare stating that they are e-literate,and willing to change their behaviour.

2. OPEN PLANNING

Collaborative marketingcommunication requires marketers touse media in new ways to achievetheir objectives. This requires them

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entertainment, a good idea, helpfulinformation, or social equity, butwithout being appreciated or winningapproval it won’t build brand orcustomer equity; indeed it may evendestroy it. MNP begins with theperson to whom communication isgoing to develop appropriate content,style and media; including how andwhen communication is delivered.Open Customers also includes askingwho the ‘customers’ are. OpenPlanning applies to all stakeholdergroups, including for exampleemployees, journalists andinfluencers, with the same truthoperating: unwelcome means notworking.

Open Planning then requires OpenThinking and develops through eightaction areas.

Open Thinking may seem an obviousrequirement but it turns out to beneither obvious nor easy. Most seniormarketers on both brand and agencysides believe in integrated or medianeutral communication. Huge effort isbeing put into achieving this, yet largeproblems remain – for example inoptimising and evaluating thecommunications mix.

This is because most attempts tosolve the problem operate at thesame level as the problem itself. Manypopular assumptions about marketingcommunications on closerexamination are dubious orconstraining, yet these are redeployed

Open DisciplinesOpen MediaOpen ChannelsOpen ProcessOpen StructureOpen RelationshipsOpen ResultsOpen Tools



to start with an open mind. The aimmust be to utilise the most effectiveand appropriate mix of media totransmit the message.

In late 2002, CIM invited a group ofsenior marketers, includingrepresentatives from IBM,Masterfoods, Ford, Vauxhall, LandRover, Lloyds TSB, NSPCC, as well assenior agency representatives fromacross the discipline landscape, todevelop best practice in the thornyand complex issue of Media NeutralPlanning (MNP). Supported byProfessor Angus Jenkinson and theCentre for Integrated Marketing, theirimportant findings are beingpublished by CIM as part of thisAgenda and promise not only tomake a significant contribution to theissue of consensual communication,but also to make a major contributionto the future of marketingcommunications generally.

Their approach to MNP, developed asa result of the substantial researchproject, is based on Open Planning. Itprovides a raft of key tools and ideas,including 18 recommended executiveactions and a toolkit to make thispractical. Research estimates byProfessor Jenkinson indicate that thepotential payoff for UK industry is inthe region of £4 billion to £10 billion.

Open Planning begins with developingOpen Customers. Open Customersare those ‘self-segmenting’ customerswilling to receive communication,with communication then aiming tocreate open customers with openwallets. MNP puts the customer atthe centre of the process, providing aconsumer – brand – discipline –media dynamic to create guidelinesfor the creative output, not the otherway round.11

Open Customers matter to medianeutral planning not just for ethicaland good citizenship reasons, butalso because only the communicationthat has any value to the recipientbenefits the brand. The value may be

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in many attempted solutions. Solvingthe problem requires thinking at adifferent level to the problem itself,and this requires an open mind.

For example, Open Disciplines andOpen Media reflect findings about themarketing communication disciplines,including advertising, directmarketing, PR, design, selling and soon. Closer examination shows thatmany of the heuristics or rules ofthumb used in selecting disciplinesand media for a communicationproject are selfproving theories thatdon’t stand up scientifically. Each ofthe beliefs leads to marketingcommunications being designed toperform a particular task, which,when achieved, serves to prove thatthe belief is correct. However, adifferent design would have led to adifferent result. Demonstrating thismay be one of those cases wherescience is the handmaiden ofcreativity, because the effect is toliberate creative thinking whileenabling new rigour.

Examples of this include: ‘advertising is for awareness’; ‘abovethe line’ and ‘below the line’; ‘mailcloses the sale’; ‘rational andemotional media’; and ‘each disciplineneeds its own objectives’.

Open Disciplines proposes the abilityof any discipline using any medium toachieve any business objective. Forexample, Boots found, whenlaunching a new product, that it couldachieve 27% more awareness bydirect mail than by TV, at 64% of thecost. Marmite created more PR fromits TV ads than its press releases. Sohave Benetton and Budweiser.Supermarkets are proving to be apowerful new advertising medium.Open Disciplines therefore upsets thecurrent assumptions about what doeswhat. Rules of thumb are designedto reduce choice in a complex world,and this is incredibly useful. But thepoint of getting creative people

involved is to innovate. If you askcreative people what they can do, theanswer is: they can do almostanything.

Furthermore, current concepts of thedisciplines that tie them to particularmedia, for example the rule ofadvertising belonging to paid-formedia, are clearly nonsense, yet theyare taught in most business schoolsaround the world. Advertising, like allof the other disciplines, is a media-independent way of approachingcommunication that can be translatedinto almost any medium. An analogyto the current situation would betelling a painter that she is onlypainting when using canvas or paperand not when using wood or glass.

Similarly, media turn out to be muchmore flexible than previouslyassumed. Most of the textbookdescriptions of what media do asopposed to what they are representbiased thinking. For example, mailmedia have physical characteristicswhile TV ads use animated visionwith sound. However, within thesefixed frames there is an extraordinaryand proven range of potential.

Open Media proposes that anymedium can be used by alldisciplines, in almost any mix. Thatmeans you can advertise in the mail,the Internet and product packagingas well as on radio and TV. You caneven use salespeople to advertise.Furthermore, one of the mostsurprising discoveries was therecognition that true creatives havea tendency to mix elements ofdifferent disciplines in a particularcommunication. They borrow fromthe traditions of advertising, direct,PR, product design and so on increating a press ad, a mail pack, aweb page, or a TV spot.

MNP widens the conventionalunderstanding of media to includeanything that conveys a message to arecipient. Any brand-stakeholder

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interface implies a medium. Thatmeans that all contact or touch pointsshould be included in the mix andtaken into account for effectivenessand preference. Leading mediaagencies and consultancies alreadyrecognise this, as when Motherrecommended to Costa Coffee that itspend its money on redesigning thestore rather than TV ads; or whenMichaelides and Bednashrecommended that BHS spend moneyon in-store shopping assistants tokeep customers buying, rather thanTV to attract them there.

Nothing of what we really know islost. Anyone who has used mail or TVor advertising or sales promotionsuccessfully can continue to do so.But suddenly new doors are open,offering significant opportunities forcompetitive advantage.

Open Channels (as here defined) is anew marcoms concept which followsfrom the freedom of disciplines andmedia. You can put a discipline, anydiscipline, into a medium, anymedium: a discipline or indeed a mixof disciplines in a medium is thenwhat is meant by a channel. OpenChannels creatively and rigorouslyoptimise the channel mix. This is notonly liberating for creative talent andan advantage when trying to achievecost efficiencies, it is also key toenabling consent-basedcommunication: biased thinkingprecludes self-segmenting customers.Open Planning means you can trulyfind out what works best, or is mostacceptable to the recipient, and usethose techniques.

Planning in the age of consent needsthese liberating and more rigorousconcepts because it is clearly proventhat maximising effectiveness andefficiency of communication requiresoptimising the mix of media anddisciplines in ways that work for therecipients. Like a single malt, theoptimum mix might just be a single

discipline in a single medium, forexample to achieve a scale effect; anexample is the Buenos Aires propertyfirm that built a pedestrian bridge topromote its new office and shoppingcentre. But for most practitionersmost of the time, synergy effectscome from great blends. In theexample above, even the propertyfirm used PR to highlight the bridge.

Open Process is a newly developedcommunication planning andevaluation process between the brandand its agencies. Open process isdesigned to ensure the best ideas arefound and used. The research teamhas developed a recommendedtemplate, with a significantlyupgraded and faster planningprocess. This includes for examplethe issuing of an open brief to everyagency at once. This could possiblyinclude the research agency andcertainly PR and any importantinternal communication functions. Itmight even include key partner mediaowners.

At the moment, budgets are typicallyallocated across different media atthe beginning of a communicationsprogramme – before the messageand most appropriate channels forcommunicating it are properlyunderstood.

MNP’s open planning contends thatmore money should be available forthe thinking time at the start of theprocess; the time to be spentfocusing on how best tocommunicate, and how the differentcomponents of the campaign shouldmatch up. The additional investmentat the start is more than recoveredby the execution process beingswifter – and better targeted.

Open Process depends on OpenStructure. Too many marketingcommunication functions are dividedinto disciplines and operate like siloswith their individual budgets, oftenpredefined. It follows from focusing

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communication on recipientpreferences – as outlined above –that the communication functionshould be organised by differentaudience (or dialogue) communities,for example different kinds ofcustomers, rather than primarily bydiscipline, as is routinely the casetoday. IBM’s trial of this led to notonly more efficient marketingactivities – better results from lesswork – but also increased knowledgeabout the customer, enhancedlearning and better communication.12

Agencies mirror this, even in manyintegrated agencies or groups. Theagency analogue is to ensure that theinterface with the brand ensuresharnessing the entire ability of theagency.

Open process also depends on OpenRelationships. It is vitally importantthat the CMO takes responsibility forensuring that relationships withinternal and external agencies arefully functional, which means partnersfocusing on common brand goals.Research suggests that for manybrands this will mean changes in howagencies are paid, including payingfor thinking separately fromexecution. It is also recommendedthat an element of agency pay isbased on success of the team ratherthan the performance of theindividual member.

Open Results means developing acommon currency for marketingcommunications. The problem withmany objectives currently in use isnot only that they load the dice whenit comes to planning, but also thatthey make it difficult to compareapples with oranges.

Furthermore, picking up on the themeof Hard-Edged Marketing last quarter,open results means developing goalsthat really matter, rather than justfollowing convenient measures. Takefor example the dominance ofawareness as a measure and goal ofmuch marketing communication.

Some 45% of Pay-By-Resultsschemes currently use advertisingawareness as the basis for assessingperformance, despite the weakness ofcorrelation between awareness andmarket share.13

Open Results Means:

• Defining more precisecommunication objectives andpriorities, which;

• Also provide a level playing field forevery agency, discipline andmedium to contribute to theirmaximum ability;

• And also enable the analyst tobenchmark performance in ameaningful way;

• While supporting and encouraginga culture and practice of teamlearning.

The research suggests ways and toolsto achieve this.

3. CREATING MESSAGES THATMATTER

Messages aren’t getting through tothe consumer because there are toomany messages. Better planning andself-segmentation can help. But, inaddition, moving beyond imprecise,impersonal targeting requiresinnovative messaging. ConsideriCoupon, which creates mobilemarketing technology that companiescan use to text electronic coupons tocustomers on their database. In ourmedia saturated world, textmessaging is potentially just anotherirritation. But what if the way inwhich you use it is truly innovative?

Marc Lewis is the company’s founderand CEO. “Imagine it’s a hot sunnyday. At 9.00 am, very hot, sweatycommuters emerge from a packedTube. Then a little message pops upoffering them a free drink or icecream at a nearby café”. “This kind ofmessage could work. You’ll get thecustomer in, and you can track the

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information because the redeeming ofthe electronic ‘coupon’ works thesame way as normal coupons – therequired customer data can betracked. You get a wider cross-sectionof people because the couponsapproach does not just attract time-rich, penny-watching pensioners, aspaper coupons tend to do.”

When you target messages creativelyand effectively, it isn’t perceived asan invasion, because it’s actuallywhat the customer wants when he orshe is hot. It is the technology thatenables it. With paper coupons, youcan’t look at the weather forecast thenight before. Here you can – andwhen it’s going to be a heat wave,that’s when you instantaneously planand execute the marketing strategy,and the message appears on thecustomer’s phone at exactly the righttime.

The technology enables it, thecreativity helps it be noticed, andcareful targeting means it neitheroverloads nor invades.

But companies must alwaysremember – it’s only innovative atthe moment. Eventually, people willignore mobile phone messages asmuch as everything else – howeverwell targeted they are. It will stopbeing new and start beingbackground.

Graham Lancaster of CAF believescreativity is a key issue. “Talk tomajor retailers/grocers and all theyreally want from great brands isproduct innovation. Without that, theway’s open to own-label and lowmargin commoditisation. This meansthat the sole raison d’être of adagencies and manufacturers iscreativity and innovation. Add valueor adios.”

Good messages are memic; catchyand viral. The extension of permissionmarketing is viral marketing – turncustomers into advocates, and theywill do your marketing for you.

Guerrilla marketing works because itlegally breaks the rules. But as ChrisClarke, creative director at digitaladvertising agency Abel & Bakersays: “Once you’ve done it, you’vedone it – you have to move on”.14

Collaborative communication cannever become a matter of routine.

4. MANAGING LEGAL BOUNDARIES

If marketers don’t self-legislate,governments will. Privacy andantijunk legislation is rapidlybecoming more stringent in clampingdown on intrusive marketing.

In Sweden, for example, marketing tochildren on television has been illegalfor over a decade. Greece too haslegislation against targeting children.And in the US, a lawsuit has beentaken out against Heineken, Bacardiand five other drinks producers byparents who claim that theiradvertising is targeting teenagers.15

Coca-Cola has recently announcedthat it will no longer advertise tochildren under the age of 12. Inpractice, this means none of itsbrands will be shown during thehours of children’s TV broadcasts.16

The immediate marketing response isto try to think of ways of gettinground the legislation; to think ofother ways of invading; to enter anarms race with the legislators.Examples include spammers insertingliterary words to convince the spamfilters that the messages are notjunk; or breaking up typical spamwords to fool the filters (e.g.“en.hance your attra.ctiveness”). Butthis is ultimately unsustainable andwill lead to dissatisfaction on bothsides. Consumers will still be unhappywith the logjam of messages andunwanted information, and marketerswill be unhappy because they will findthe messages are still not respondedto, despite more strenuous efforts toget them through to the consumer.

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So what can marketers do? Somecharities, such as Cancer ResearchUK, ask the question “How often doyou want to hear from us?” Simple –but the charity saves costs and themessages are more likely to reachtheir intended destination. This ideahas been around for a dozen yearsor so – but has not yet beenadopted by many firms. If the less ismore principle were adopted by allcompanies, the pile of junk mail onthe doormat each morning could bedramatically reduced.

In the age of consent, the consumerdetermines the model. Invadingconsumers’ private space is nolonger acceptable – or effective.Instead, companies must seek theiractive consent to participate indialogue with their target audience.Let customers be in charge – letthem sell or share what informationthey want to you, and ask themwhen they want to hear from you.

For instance, consider theadvantages and disadvantages ofabandoning cold calling. At present,having got hold of a phone number,marketers ring consumers at timesthey are likely to be in – saybetween 6 and 7.30 pm. In thedistant past this technique had aproven success rate – small, butthrow enough mud and some sticks.However, as customers become moreaware of their right to privacy, thewillingness to talk to cold callersdeclines. While a response rate of5% might be seen as a success in acampaign, the quantities of peoplefor whom it creates a strongnegative impression of the companycan outweigh the benefits broughtby the 5% who respond. Cold callingcontinues because the hits directlyscored by the campaign –howeverslim – can be measured. Thenumber of people who are drivenaway from the company as a directresult of the cold calling – howevergreat – cannot be measured.

Some companies are recognising theimportance of a comprehensive,legally compliant policy on customerprivacy. A survey carried out by CSOmagazine (a US security publication)found that 12% of companies in theUS currently have a Chief PrivacyOfficer. This is an increasing trend,and where the US leads, others willfollow.17

While the legislation and the need togain permission might seem like hardwork, it actually presents a distinctopportunity for the shrewd marketer.Those who seize the initiative willcreate a much better relationshipwith the customer – one in whichcustomers are enabled to say whatthey want, and when and how theywant it.

The advantages are obvious. Untilnow, marketers have gamely battledwith unwieldy concepts like CRM.Such theories essentially recognisethat the customer is resistant,because customers aren’tspontaneously receptive to what is onoffer. Imagine how different thingscould be if customers becamespontaneously receptive. Consensualmarketing could take us there.

5. COST EFFECTIVE

It is estimated that £100bn is spenton advertising globally every year.Remarkably, much of this investmentis not subjected to rigorous ROImeasures. “We have really lousyways to try and measure any type ofintegrated programme or activity,”says Don Schultz. “Most are based onsome type of outbound,communication-driven programmefrom the 1960s – i.e., recognition,awareness etc. Clearly, today theconsumer operates in an interactive,networked, global communicationdriven workplace where inboundcommunication is as important asoutbound. Yet, we’re still using thetools that attempt to measure

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each communication activityseparately and independently.”

Marketers use these measuresbecause they’ve always used them.Schultz believes these measures areless and less relevant. Nike, forinstance, doesn’t measure outputs(e.g. communications awareness orresponse levels), but outcomes (e.g.how many people take up sport); thisthen enables the company toconcentrate on innovation. If youdiscover that the numbers of peopleplaying basketball are increasing,then that becomes the sport youwant to look at when innovating.

What are the best communicationsmetrics? Companies like Microsoftand Coke use % awareness. Tescoand Walmart use % customerretention.

Marketers will still say, “I get 5%returns on my direct mail and I’mhappy with that." But they will lose inthe long run if they continue beingcomplacent in this way. The 5%return will be offset by the damagecaused by people who used yourcompany before, but go elsewherebecause of the unwanted informationyou keep bombarding them with.

Measuring effectiveness is aboutmore than the efficiency of operationsexecution. Intangible returns can beas important as the tangible ones.

It has been estimated, for example,that media neutral planning couldreduce marketing communicationsspend by as much as 30%.18

Improved database software willreduce the wasted amounts spent onmailing deceased people or defunctaddresses. And self-segmentation willreduce the vast amounts spent onadvertising that does not reach itstarget and close a sale, but merelygains awareness.

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Privacy and consent will increasinglyimpact on successful communications.Legislation will increase; consumerswill become more and morefrustrated by unwanted messages.

The challenge is simply explained bySeth Godin: “Talk to people who wantto be talked to, in a way that theywant to be talked to. The idea thatmarketers are in charge and candemand attention whenever theywant it is totally over. It’s not aboutyou. It’s about me. You don’t invademy privacy if I ask you to talk to me.And the only way I’m going to ask isif you offer me something of greatvalue, or create a product that’sremarkable.”19

In the old days, the door was openunless the consumer said it wasclosed. Today, the door is closedunless the consumer says it is open.So, unless today’s marketer sendsmessages with consent and withrespect for privacy, thecommunication won’t be received.Marketers who do this first, will havean advantage. Good communicationis about being two-way andinteractive.

Customer collaboration means puttingthe customer at the centre of thecommunications; making sure youhave their permission before youcommunicate with them; ensuring allyour media are fully integrated andfocused; and that there is genuinecreativity. Only then will customersstop asking: you talkin’ to me?

ALL TOGETHERNOW

3

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Sources1 Walsh, Nick Paton (2001) Oyez! Enough already. Readers Digest, May.

2 WARC (2004) Marketing Pocket Book. pp.173.

3 Anon (2003) Junk mail. VNU. Available from http://www.vnunet.com/Specials/1141452[Accessed 18th December 2003]

4 In 2003, 100 students featuring the CNX logo went walkabout in 5 UK cities over 2 days. Parmar, A. (2003)Maximum exposure: advertisers use bodies as billboards to up brand visibility. Marketing News, pp.6.

5 Fallows, D. (2003) Spam: how it is hurting email and degrading life on the Internet. Pew Internet.Available from http:www.pewinternet.org [Accessed 18th December 2003]

6 Anon (2003) Business. Economist. 8-15 November. pp. 9.

7 According to the market analyst IDC

8 Correspondence with Insights, October 2003

9 Interview with Des Dearlove, November 2003


11 Kaye, T. (2003) Ideas in Media Neutral Planning: just today’s buzz wordor a genuine new world order?Available from http://www.marketing-society.org.uk/downloads/MEDIA-NEUTRAL-PLANNING.pdf[Accessed 18th December 2003]

12 ‘IBM – a new model for IMC’. Jenkinson/Sain, Centre for IntegratedMarketing. 13 ARC (2000)

13 Paying for advertising. ISBA/ARC Available fromhttp://www.isba.org.uk/publications/PFA3-qa.pdf[Accessed 18th December 2003]

14 Murphy, D (2003) Hip, cool, and against the law. Marketing Business,October pp. 26-27.

15 ARC (2000) Paying for advertising. ISBA/ARCAvailable from http://www.isba.org.uk/publications/PFA3-qa.pdfAccessed 18th December 2003]

16 Kleinman, M (2003) Coke halts advertising to under-12s. Marketing, 20th November, p.1.

17 Biography of Chief Privacy Officer available athttp://www.doubleclick.com/us/about_doubleclick/executive_bios/bennie-smith.asp[Accessed 18th December 2003]

18 Jenkinson, A. and Bishop, K (2003) Communications Optimisation:The Role and Practice of MNP. CIM/The Centre for Integrated Marketing p.1.


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A Cambridge Marketing CollegeAlumni Reprint with kind permissionfrom The Chartered Institute ofMarketing 02/04

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