When list brokers attack!

Welcome to the world of direct mail list buying!  Check out the mailing list finder by mailing list brokers NextMark as just one example, and search for your target demographic.  Or, if you want to surprise yourself, search for the demographic you’re in, and see how many companies you deal with are renting out your name.

Now, to be clear, I don’t want to make NextMark (or any mailing list brokers, or any companies that sell their lists) to be the devil here – it’s just interesting from a full disclosure standpoint.  Seriously, I delayed posting this one for quite a while because I knew I’d get lost in the data.

But this isn’t a story about personal privacy or consumer protection.  It’s about Bad Marketing.  Specifically, the kind that we got a while back, when the package in the photo at the top of this post arrived.  A big box of baby formula, in a clear plastic wrapper.  Addressed to a hybrid of mom and baby’s name.  With no note of explanation.

It was random food in the mail, if you consider infant formula to be food.

There are times when a clear plastic wrapper is a good thing – it’s the opposite of the “plain brown wrapper” made legendary in adult-oriented purchases.  People are going to see what you’re getting.  If it’s a direct mail piece, you’ve got a chance to tease the prospect into opening the mail.

For this one, all I can think of is that the marketing department wanted to reach out to postal workers.

I can’t say with certainty where the list came from, but conversations in our circle of friends has pointed the finger at one likely target.  I wasn’t there when the services in question where purchased so I’ve no idea how their privacy policies were presented, and this isn’t a judgement of them (and again, I’m not sure they were the source) or the mailing list brokers in the middle.

Whoever ran the formula campaign, on the other hand, needs to rethink their career choice.  They really could have done a lot better by just sending me $10 in a greeting card.  It’d be cheaper and probably more effective.  Well, they’d have at least doubled their chances from zero to zero, since we don’t use infant formula here anyway.