Are retail fashion marketers the most desperate marketers on the planet?

Over the last 13 weeks, I’ve received 46 text messages from a store selling suits.  That’s right, forty-six text messages in 13 weeks, each one with a new slant on pitching a men’s dress suit.  Sure, I’m interested in buying a new suit, but really, forty-six offers in thirteen weeks?Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Gentleman, how often do you buy a new suit?  Ladies, how often do you buy a new dress?  I’ll bet it’s not every week… and wouldn’t you rather have a conversation with someone about what you want instead of receiving a slew of convenient, all too easy batch and blast text messages?

Text messaging may be the newest favorite marketing medium, and currently enjoys a very high open rate, but marketers will surely ruin the channel and crush the golden egg if they do not exercise some restraint and use it for its better scenario – one-to-one conversation.  Surely it will become like email without more restraint.

Cell phones and text messaging are a great platform for engaging in conversations with customers, building relationships and delivering personalized value.  I don’t believe it should become the preferred channel for cheap and quick, mass produced, broadcast sent messages to any phone number that comes your way.

Did I opt-in?  Yes, I did, but my experience with this clothing marketer is all too similar to a t-shirt maker I’ve business with…

In the case of the t-shirt company, I’ve made three purchases since 2017 and the last one was more than three years ago.  And what did that yield?  48 email messages during this past month of May alone.

Think about that, if the T-shirt company has been consistent over the last five years – and without doing a count, I can tell you, they have been very consistent – at 48 emails per month they have sent me 2,880 promotional messages over that five year window. That’s a lot of junk mail!

To my marketing friends in fashion and clothing – do you really believe it takes that many messages to win three small orders from a current customer?  And we’re not talking about the acquisition of a new customer, but instead winning orders from an existing customer that likes the brand.

I don’t think so.  There are better ways that are more endearing to the customer and mindful of the resources used by the company.  Give it some thought, then send me a text message (206-312-2129) and let me know what you think.  I’m just betting that will lead to a conversation and something more productive – for me and you.