Permission Marketing – Is There A Grey Area?
According to Seth Godin who coined the phrase, no. But is there a grey area? For instance I received this “spam” email from Lisa Rossi who is a naming specialist.
Attn: Brand Identity Guru,
My name is Lisa Rossi and I have?over 12 years of naming and branding experience working with both advertising/branding agencies and corporate clients around the globe.
?
My?industry experience includes consumer products, industrial, medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, professional services and technology.
I have helped the following agencies assist their?clients in creating targeted and distinct brand identities:
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800 Degrees
Addison Whitney
Ashton Brand Group
Brains On Fire
BrandEvolve
Catchword
Crescent
Diefenbach Elkins
FutureBrand
Koncordia
Landor
Northern Magnolia
Origin Branding
Roz Goldfarb Associates
Stevens Advertising
The Sterling Group
Wood Worldwide
?
800 Degrees
Addison Whitney
Ashton Brand Group
Brains On Fire
BrandEvolve
Catchword
Crescent
Diefenbach Elkins
FutureBrand
Koncordia
Landor
Northern Magnolia
Origin Branding
Roz Goldfarb Associates
Stevens Advertising
The Sterling Group
Wood Worldwide
This is total “spam” and it came at just the right time as I was looking for another naming writer. I’m going to call Lisa and discuss doing some naming for us. I’m not discounting her because she emailed me without my permission. She’s not black balled by any means.
I think most people have differing views on what they consider spam. In this case I didn’t consider it spam because I needed it. It filled a void for me so it was okay. But selling me Viagra every 5 minutes insults me. There is a huge?difference.
Many companies will say they never will send an email without your permission and that’s fine. But I think there is a grey area somewhere, I’m just not sure where the line is? What do you think?
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
November 17th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
You, as the recipient, can decide what the parameters of acceptability are for your own mailbox. You draw the lines — not the sender.
So, sure, there might be a grey area, but there’s no way for any marketer to be certain what each recipient’s grey area might be. They can guess, and get it wrong most of the time…or they can get your permission before sending you anything, and get it right most of the time.