Don't show them the strategy

Yesterday i received a piece of direct mail from Ocado. The first sentence read 'In tough times. So I threw it in the bin. Because my first thought was tough times, Waitrose, deli bar, overpriced, home delivery and food close to sell by date. No thanks. Aldi are only another 15 miles away through snowdrift I'll go there. It felt rather opportunistic and reminded me of all the stuff I am reading everyday in the paper. If it was trying to strike a chord, or create some empathy it failed badly.

All which got me thinking about how easy it is to get carried away and 'advertise' your strategy. So things like Sky addressing mums 'As a busy mum ...' in their direct mail. Then proceeding to make no further reference, promoting the big match and MamaMia with equal weight. If you are going to do it, do it properly and tailor the whole communication. I think direct marketers are more guilty than the rest we like to show off our targetting ideas.

There are must be lots of examples, anyone got any more?