Email Junk Mail Marketing
Companies that try to personify their brand through sending emails (email marketing) to consumer, as a friend would, is not ineffective, to say the least.
Do you feel more attached to a product that has your name on it? Consumer behaviour is often influenced by an emotional connection to a product or brand. A consumer is more likely to purchase a product based on the degree of emotional connection to the brand, whether it be memories, or associations with the brand. Many brands allow consumer to personalize/customize a product into to develop a deeper emotional connection with product. It is proven that, if consumers feel more involved with a product, the likelihood of purchase increases. Personifying a brand, like how Professor Cubbon mentioned in class, also helps consumers create a sense of connection with the brand.
Today, we find more emails from headquarters of companies that are addressed to individuals. Being able to address someone by name, instead of sending out a generic impersonalized email leads to that deeper emotional connection with the brand that all companies long to achieve. But somehow this “personalized” email, which businesses refer, as email marketing is somewhat disrespectful and intrusive. Just because consumers leave their names and email addresses during a single purchase at the store, what gives them the right to spam them emails that they only bothered to change only one word of, the salutation. The content of the email is evidently not catered to one’s individual needs, as her close friend received the identical emails. Companies should be strategic in the timing and content of their emails. I find it very misleading and humiliated to be excited about an email that’s addressed to me, but only to find out that, it was just computer generated. Retailers should either just send out generic emails addressed to the general public or spend more time catering content to valued consumers. For consumers who are not enthusiastic about companies that use email marketing, remember, there’s always the “unsubscribe” button, so make good use of it!
