Re: Is personalization really personal?

From: Pauline Chiarelli <cipp_at_hunterlink.net.au>
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 15:19:58 -0500 (CDT)

Mark Montgomery mentions the high cost of personalisation and while I
agree it's expensive and difficult, particularly for mass mailing, in my
view it is, at least in part, essential. Most marketers fall for the
"Some's good, More's better" approach and start standardising and
cutting corners, treating customers as numbers.

This may work for a while but eventually customers see through it. I
remember a classic mail piece sent in error to the Milton Library which
began: "Dear Mrs Library, Your son Milton . . ."

We all make these mistakes and can laugh at ourselves for doing it, but
when we factor in the lifetime value of the customer (assuming we're not
just slash-and-burn merchants) we realize how critical it is to get it
right. For the past 20 years, despite being the Chairman and CEO of a
multi-million dollar mail-order operation, no matter how busy or
elevated I became, I made it my personal responsibility to maintain our
customer database. Get it right. It's the lifeblood of your emerging
Internet empire.

Cheers

George Parry - Building Wealth through Internet Community
Read my FREE book at http://www.georgeparry.com.au
george_at_georgeparry.com.au "You Get What You Give Away"

P.S. Take a look at Ken Evoy's FREE book at
www.sitesell.com/realwealth.html

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Received on Fri Jul 30 1999 - 18:45:27 CDT