14 Statements that Raise Expert Direct Marketers' Blood Pressure

Some readers will take issue with my list arguing that it containselements of truth. But in my view, these comments generally reflect amisdirected strategic sense or preconceived ideas about the role ofadvertising and direct marketing that are based on poorly foundedassumptions. At their best, some of these statements reflect ignorance andat their worst, closed mindedness. But you be the judge. Perhaps you couldadd to this list or elaborate on those listed.

1. Any marketing experience you have that is over 10 years old isuseless. 2. Any strategy that has an ROI attached to it is no longer a strategy,but a tactic. 3. Direct marketing operates below the line because it supportsawareness advertising. 4. We tried direct mail (or any other medium named that was used acouple of times) and it doesn't work. 5. Traditional media is dead because every one now uses and buysproducts exclusively as a result of the overwhelming influence of theInternet. 6. We want a CMO with hands on expertise in online technology, notsomeone who has just led such programs. 7. Don't worry about the strategy. Just do it. 8. When we are spending on advertising to build the brand, we don'tworry about trying to calculate ROI because nothing is more importantthan our brand. 9. We know that successful BtoB lead generation used to rely heavily ontraditional media like outbound telemarketing. But today, business peopleuse the Internet. So we have to dump the old, proven approaches for pure,Internet lead generation.10. We don't want to put a coupon in our print advertisements becausethe design does not fit our brand image.11. We don't want to make an offer or other call to action because thatgets in the way of our image.12. That direct mail package is ugly and doesn't retain the look andfeel of all of our advertising.13. We can handle any volume of leads you generate. So don't worry aboutlimiting weekly lead flow volumes.14. We want only tight leads where the prospect is ready to buy today.Otherwise we just waste our sales people's time.