That’s an old acronym from the computer business you probably recognise.
It sprang to mind not in the context of the mountain of half-truths concocted by the G20 cronies to kid us they are doing anything as a result of their mutual back-slapping, but because of a nagging professional interest
I just keep asking myself if by any chance the recession will get rid of the mountains of sloth, ignorance and stupidity in the form of human garbage that infects the marketing industry.
I wonder about this in a spirit of hopeful, but not optimistic enquiry. Not optimistic because here is a typical example of what happens every day all over the world.
My Australian partner, Malcolm Auld, is one of the best known figures in the industry there. His book, Direct Marketing Made Easy is a required text. For twenty odd years he’s been speaking (very entertainingly) all over the country and in much of South East Asia on the subject.
I’ve even shipped him over here a couple of times and stooped to stealing one or two of his better jokes. So here’s what happened to him not long ago
He was asked by an organisation to tender for some work – quite a substantial series of projects. Let him tell the story.
“They wanted full costings, typical timelines and potential discounts (creative and print) for briefing all jobs at once.
We submitted a tender because we’re already doing a major job for them.
They ask us to a meeting to answer questions, which I confirmed by e-mail because I wanted to make sure they weren’t looking for credentials.
We get there and they point to the data projector for our presentation. I say, ‘but you confirmed we were here to answer your questions – how long would you like me to speak about myself?’
There were 5 women there. The lady leading it was English. Her first question was: ‘How long does it take you to get the reverse brief back to us, where you convert our brief into your creative brief?’
Apparently that’s the usual way she works – obviously spent too much time in big agency land and has been convinced by her agency that clients cannot write briefs.”
(Incidentally, I’ve never heard of this reverse briefing crap. Obviously an ingenious new way of wasting time and money whilst trotting out another piece of pretentious jargon)
“Then the events manager wants to know what qualifications I have in direct marketing.”
(That was the bit that got me. Here’s one of the very best known direct marketers in Australia, who’s written the book – and this silly cow’s never heard of him.)
Mal goes on:
“Then they tell us that only one of them has even read our tender response, so can we elaborate on it as they haven’t had time to read it.”
(Interesting. No time to do the one thing they should have done; plenty of time to demonstrate their idleness and ignorance in a meeting).
“Then when I ask why they are changing agencies, they tell us they haven’t decided if they want to change agencies. Yet 4 agencies were meeting with them that day to pitch their business.
None of them knew we were already working with them and it was their Director who recommended we be put on the list for the tender.”
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? How did they all find enough time to attend a meeting but not enough to do five minutes’ homework?
I might add that this business of “tendering” is absurd. You can’t evaluate this stuff on price. You’re not building a bloody motorway, you fools. Only the results matter. So a test is the easiest, cheapest and only sensible approach.
How do these people get jobs?
These twats get jobs because the people in HR who are tasked with recruiting them are even more stupid than they are.
BA in media studies, great. Read a book? Jilly Cooper, fine. Shoulder pads? Check. Know anyone in Honkers? Mutual braying.
You’ve got the job.
“I might add that this business of “tendering” is absurd. You can’t evaluate this stuff on price.”
I heard someone say “If you can tell the difference between good advice and bad advice, you don’t need the advice.”
He also said “…and if you can’t tell the difference between good advice and bad advice, you’re screwed.”
I don’t quite agree with those statements, but raise an important point.
If someone is hiring a marketer, but can’t tell the difference between a good marketer and a bad one, they’re likely to make a bad decision.
And, in Malcolm’s case, they probably hired the marketers with the fanciest presentation… but very little actual substance or ability.
Real direct marketers are at a disadvantage in this sort of situation because what works in marketing is rarely “creative” – “whatever that awful word means” (D.O.) – or glamourous.
It’s just about getting the right offer and sales message to the right audience in a way that get’s their trust and attention.
And, to people who know fuck all, that’s pretty boring.
Steve
I’m not going to even try making a clever comment here as to how they should have done things.
All I know, from this post of yours, is that I’m not half as stupid as I thought I was.
Either that or these morons need brain transplants.
They get the jobs because they excel in dandyism and smoke in the board room. Male morons are tickled by the sight
p k surendran
bangalore-India
For the record, Malcolm’s agency MAD created a training website for my client in approximately five weeks; saved us tens of thousands of dollars first obtaining and then utilising direct and targetted emails to reach customers legally required to complete the training and threw in a cake and bottle of champagne to celebrate our record-breaking launch. If you’re looking for an agency to manage your digital and direct work, save yourself some time with the useless Tender process. Just give MAD a call and who knows, maybe you too can get what you want on time, on budget and with the professional guidance you’ll need to do what direct marketing is supposed to do, namely get results.
This is reminds me of one my favourite David Ogilvy quotes, “nothing is more dangerous than an ignorant subsconcious”.
It is very hard dealing with people who are willfully ignorant and have no perception of the value you bring.
It's like asking a famous actor to do an audition.