Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

No, no, I’ve not degenerated into giving dating (or life coaching) advice here.  But, building a customer relationship is a lot like dating (and  nobody gets married on the first date…at least not anybody that stays married.)

My good friend and all-around marketer poobah, Mary Ellen Merrigan, recently wrote about an event where attendees were forced to visit vendors – so they could get that all important vendor signature to possibly win a prize.  Never mind if the attendees were: a. interested in what the vendor had to offer; b. the vendor wanted the type of traffic the forced herding caused.

I had a flashback to -oh – the 80s in reading this.  So, so old school marketing.  Remember the “booth babes” at the tech shows?  All to generate traffic.  But real “decision makers” were oh-so-rare in the thundering herd. What we really got was Joe and Bob, the IT guys, let out in the world for their one annual business/research trip expense-paid spree (”What cool giveaways do you have?” [sunglasses were always a winner - grab and run]“Oh, look free beer!”)   One year at Comdex, one section of the show had lines back out the door…so the Joes and the Bobs could get the autographs of bikini-clad porn stars (I kid you not.)

I don’t remember what the women were “selling” but then I doubt the guys ever noticed the product.

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