Marketing_Communication__How_Much_Is_Too_Much.…__

Yesterday my phone rang so thinking that it was a friend or a close relative who was calling up I picked up the call only to realize that it was a sales call from a credit card company. Later on in the day I received an sms so again thinking that it was a funny forward or a friend trying to chat up I saw it only to realize that it was a promotional message selling me some kind of packaged tour to Kerala. Further in the day on I went to check my email inbox and again there it was; a company trying to market its season end sale. What happened with me yesterday isn’t, unfortunately, a one off incident. it’s what I might call the ‘plight’ of today’s consumer….. All of us today, live in a world in which we are constantly bombarded by various kinds of marketing campaigns. The question that needs to be answered is whether the companies are going a bit too far in trying to woo customers' Personally speaking the more advertising comes at me, the more I actively block it. I purposely ignore advertising sometimes because of the method. If I get an unsolicited flier in the mail, I will probably make it a point not to buy from the company that sent it because I don’t like to reward them for cluttering up my life. And I am sure that I am not the only one taking that step. The marketers also don’t even let you pass your surfing time on the internet in a pleasant way. The moment I log on to Face book my webpage is more than 20% occupied by ads, ads and more ads. Am I out there to socialize with my friends or am I out there to see a webpage cluttered with advertisements. And it’s true not only for Face book but for most of the websites. There is a deluge of advertisements coming your way hindering your ability to have a smooth browsing experience. There are always going to be pop ups in some way or another even if you enable pop up blocker on your browser Another question that comes to the mind is whether too much hype is good for your product....'' It has been found out by research that people take notice when they feel worse than they thought they would, but—oddly—not when they feel better than expected. The message for marketers is that too much hype can hurt a company when people realize that their expectations haven’t been met. Another problem is unupdated databases of consumers the result of which is the message goes out to the wrong customer For example our very own professor Prafulla Agnihotri still gets email offers from websites like simplymarry.com Does he need them…'' Well your guess is as good as mine. ;) Even I got an email (and still keep getting )from some random institute offering me admission into their 2011-2013 MBA program based on my cat 2010 score card; yes an exam ‘I never gave’. So as a marketer, how do you know how often to communicate' Ask your audience, perhaps when they sign up for your newsletter, pose the question to them "how often would you like to hear from us'" and you could even expand on that "what information are you interested in hearing about'" Some websites have taken note of that and have started asking such questions. Make sure that the messages you are sending are of interest to those you are sending them to. Consider doing segmentation with your lists and even creating groups with social media to ensure that recipients receive the message they are most interested in. Conclusion: As a marketer you can also be rest assured that if you have recently seen a lot of people unsubscribing from your email list, unfollowing you on twitter or leaving your Facebook fan page or LinkedIn group that you could very well be overwhelming those prospects with messages which they don’t need or don’t give a damn to...!! So I would like to end by saying that marketers do have to draw a line between ‘effective communication’ and ‘over communication’ in order to be successful in getting their message across to the target audience in the most optimal manner possible…