Media

Recommendation for the Direct Marketing Association

I assume that the DMA has something approaching a research budget, so they can figure out how to annoy me more effectively. Given that assumption, perhaps they could establish a Please Call registry, to counter the FTC's extremely popular Do Not Call registry.

The design of the Do Not Call registry is backwards because the government cannot simply say, "you may not speak unless spoken to." (Well, it could, if some clerk hadn't decided that corporations were people.) So now the marketing industry has to bear the additional costs of sorting and removing phone numbers from their lists, when really what they want are pre-qualified sales leads, customers who are ready to buy.

The DMA could assume the obvious, that we the people do not care to be disturbed at dinner, and remedy this architectural problem by providing the means for persons to request sales pitches for particular goods. Use of the registry by marketers could be entirely voluntary, rather than required of the association's members, since the rates of return should be greater. Registrants would get calls at the times of their choosing, for things that they desire. The seller gets a list of people willing to listen to a pitch. And me? I don't get called at all.

10:47:16 AM # Google It!
categories: Media