I So Want To Meet These 19 Percent of Consumers

Wait, don’t click away. You’re not seeing double. While this looks like the same title as my last post, it is not. That post’s title was just slightly different, I So Want To Meet These 5 Percent Of Marketers who don’t use data to make strategic decisions.

Yeah, I can’t figure it out, either. If you have a theory on this, I’m all ears.

Ok, as for this particular post and a certain 19% of consumers I would so love to meet. With Marketing Charts once again providing the inspiration I give you the following:

Do you see it? Remember, as I’ve mentioned before, I love statistics but I love to take the contrarian view i.e. if X% are doing this, why are Y% doing that?

So while 81% of consumers say they want to see ads that are germane to them, another19% of consumers apparently don’t mind seeing irrelevant ads.

Huh?

Why in the world would ANYONE want to see nor mind seeing ads that are not relevant to them? Then again why would 5% of marketers NOT use data in their strategic decisions?

Yes, these are the things that keep me up at night.

Means Nothing To Me But I Like It

So, the question that is screaming back at me is Why would ANYONE want to see something that is not relevant to them?

Here’s some theories:

• Loneliness. These folks don’t care what advertisers and marketers send them, just as long as they send them something; it makes them feel loved.
• Apathy. These are folks who just don’t care. They literally could care less when it comes to advertising and marketing so whether an ad is relevant to them or not is completely irrelevant in the first place. Wait, what? My heads trying to figure this one out.
• Misunderstanding. These are people who don’t even realize or understand that ads they’re seeing are not relevant to them. For example, a man buys an electric shaver online. The next day he’s served an ad for a new suit. He subliminally thinks the ad for the suit is relevant because in his mind he connects the dots between the new shaver and new suit because he’s going on an interview for a new job. See how it all connects… in his mind? I knew you would.

The MUCH Bigger Issue

While it is interesting and intriguing all the while head-scratching — the above is NOT the biggest for issue marketers. Although I can see some marketers screaming aloud: “Hey, we can keep sending out any messages we want because close to 20% of consumers don’t care what we send them!”

Yeah, good luck with that.

No, the MUCH bigger issue can be seen in the image below. It’s the same image as above only this time I removed the strikethrough to reveal the issue in question.

Just a little more than half of respondents say they see ads that relevant to them?

For the love of… here we go again!

Clearly those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Why do I say that?

Well, how about this? Way, way back in 2014 I wrote a Forbes piece entitled The Nine Letter Word Every Marketer Needs To Remember At All Times. Care to guess what said word is?

I’ll give you a hint. This chart is from the same ’14 piece.

Know the word yet?

Ok, here’s another hint. This one is from this very year from a piece entitled This Is the Most Egregious Act Any Brand Can Commit.

The word rhymes with “schmelevance.”

Ok, by now you know the word, at least you better.

The fact that any brand with so much info AKA data on a given consumer could EVER send something not relevant to that consumer is mind blowing to me.

I lay out some of the reasons why I think brands do this and by all means please read both of my pieces on this subject that seemingly, is not getting any better any time soon.