Sometimes when you are a marketer out in the real world, it’s hard not to see things from a marketing eye. If I see a business website is generating a WordPress error, I shake my head in dismay and resist the urge to seek out their email and tell them that a plugin went rogue. Or, I’ll see an endcap at Target or some other store and get pulled in, complementing the store in my head on their bright colors and convenience of items (“Why yes, I did need an air freshener. Thanks for reminding me!”).
But just as I see all the things that are going wrong or right from a marketing standpoint, I also see what could be different, introduced. That made me think of a few things that I would want from as a marketer, but would hate as a consumer.
Brands Talking in my Facebook Conversations
Take the below example:
As a marketer, I reviewed the conversation that I hadte with my aunt (Lori) and cousin (Savanah) and instantly thought:
Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity for a salon to pop in and offer me a discount on my next service?
But as a consumer, I already have a favorite salon that I had called to make my appointment. Letting brands into Facebook conversation also would probably lead to more abuse than helpful information. For instance, the crappy salon is the one who participates instead of a classy one I’d actually go to, or a spammy hair dye distributor leaves a link to buy it wholesale.
Have a Tumblr API for Social Media
Tumblr’s API isn’t really used with many social media scheduling services. As a social media marketer and blogger with a really crappy Tumblr, I’d like to have the API so I could use a service like Buffer to schedule Tumblr post. That would help me keep awesome things updated in my Tumblr without having to remember to manually do it every once in a while. This would make me a much more active user.
However, the Tumblr API could also be abused by brands. Tumblr is a really tight-knit community and wasn’t happy about its acquisition by Yahoo!. Allowing brands to automatically start auto-posting or doing whatever with a Tumblr API could lead to thousands of re-posted tweets and content that isn’t useful or interesting to the community.
Personalized Advertising
It’s probably been documented in some sort of science fiction movie, but what if billboards, store windows, or displays mentioned my name and used my past purchase history to suggest items I could get in real time? This would be any marketer’s dream: extremely personalized ads that certainly would get more attention than a generic poster or sign.
But as a consumer, I picture myself with the flu, dashing into CVS for some more DayQuil. The last thing I would want was some ad flashing my name and offering me paper towels just because I bought some last time. Personalized advertising could be just as big of a disaster as remarketing is, and none of us want that.
What are some things you’d love as a marketer but hate as a consumer? I’d love to hear them in the comments!
Screenshot via Facebook.
Kelsey Jones
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