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How much marketing is too much?

October 01, 2008 | Internet Marketing

Experts estimate that the average person gets beaten up by between 1,600 and 6,000 advertising messages daily, but consumers have learned to defend themselves with a simple tactic - they’re ignoring you.

In the past, marketing had one tangible constraint: the cost. “Basically, you marketed as much as you could spend,” says Andrew Hally, a vice president of product marketing and strategy at Unica, a provider of enterprise marketing management software. Budget is still a concern, but many marketers are disillusioned by the availability of low-cost channels such as email and Google’s YouTube. This media proliferation is vying for an ever-limited mindshare—and while quality is supposed to trump quantity, no one really knows.

Technology has empowered customers just as it’s enabled marketers. “At first they ignored you. Then they blocked you. Now they turn on you,” Hally says. Marketers are clever, though—like water, they seep into any available nook. Next time you watch local news, notice that commercials often air simultaneously on a split screen—rendering remote controls useless. Digital video recorders (DVRs) pose a bigger challenge. Leichtman Research Group reported last year that 20 percent of households used a DVR, up from only 2 percent in 2003. And DVR growth is projected to reach 50 percent by 2011. But customers aren’t stopping there. Bother them enough and they’ll get the law on their side.

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