From today’s NYT: In reply to a blogger’s complaint about a current Target ad, Target sent an email to the blogger that said “Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets.” (emphasis mine).
Wow! The notion that any company has the chutzpah to completely disregard a major communications channel takes my breath away. I’m not commenting on how seriously they should take ShapingYouth.org, the founder of which sent the complaint — I don’t anything about that particular blog, though I’d guess they’ve had record traffic today.
I do know that “conversational marketing” is the most fundamental shift in marketing that’s happened during my career. To eliminate all blogs – one of the major manifestations of conversational marketing — from consideration, with the arrogant-sounding, broad-brush, across-the-board statement that Target used makes me wonder what they’re doing over there in the marketing department. (Jeez guys, at least don’t say it that way, even if that’s what you’re doing.)
Figuring out how to “participate” with the blogosphere is hard. It requires resources and it’s messy because there’s no control on the number or quality of bloggers. It requires a willingness to slog through a lot of meaningless drivel to make sure you don’t miss the important stuff and to engage on some issues that normally wouldn’t get your attention.
On the Dot 