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This is awful. It is not only awful due to being relentlessly insensitive, but it it another affirmation of something that has always taken place in marketing:
by memset 13y ago
This is awful. It is not only awful due to being relentlessly insensitive, but it it another affirmation of something that has always taken place in marketing: dehuminzation.
We think about "conversion rates", "retention rates", "buy our CRM to keep track of all of your relationships!" just like that jerk who kept a spreadsheet of his okcupid dates. (Okcupid dating is similarly dehumanizing - one begins to treat it like an online marketing funnel.) Like we're all sheep being herded through a funnel-shaped fence by some social media manager in midtown.
Turns out these are just people, trying to get by in life, who don't really benefit that much from folks trying to scrape every iota of data about them just to get 'em to buy what, in this case, a pack of cheap ballpoint pens or something? Sheesh.
- wfunction 13y ago"Or Current Business" is what gets me.
- Ygg2 13y agoNow imagine his Daughther/Son was killed/raped. It actually crosses the line twice.
- baddox 13y agoWhat about this story do you think is an example of dehumanization?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- reuven 13y agoI think that it'll speak volumes, not just to the bereaved parents, but also to the employees of Office Max, if the CEO were to demonstrate a true, deep apology. Corporate culture is an important thing. This is the sort of thing that's serious enough for employees to work on Sunday to fix. My impression, from reading the article, is that they'll start to take it seriously when they get to work on Monday. That's already two news cycles too late for them to undo the PR damage they've done to themselves.
- ballard 13y agoIf it wasn't made immediately, which could have ended the story, an appology is never happening because it's tantamount to an admission of legal culpability. Also few CEOs of large orgs have the spine to take any risk for the greater good because they're beholden to their board and their shareholders. That's just the way these folks are, by and large.
- brazzy 13y agoThe fact that companies collect and trade this hugely personal, emotional information about their customers in order to fake a small-town general store atmosphere where the guy at the counter knows everyone's personal history, when in fact it's just a minimum wage call center drone looking at a CRM database.
- hsuresh 13y agoDehumanizing - maybe, but the bigger issue in marketing imho is that it seems to be centered around finding more and more personal info about individuals. Most marketers seem to think that finding more personal info about customers can somehow turn into better sales.