Big Numbers are Really Scary (or You’ve Been Mugged)

OMG! March Madness is going to cost US businesses $3.8 billion in lost productivity; or is it $3.5 billion? Or $1.4 billion? Or $1.5 billion? Or $1.2 billion? Or is it only $889.6 million? I guess it doesn’t really matter, I better run out and buy some web monitoring/blocking software just to be safe!

Early in my career, I spent a few years working in market research. At the time, it was common practice for telemarketing companies to sell products and services under the pretense of a market research study. After getting the respondent to agree to do a survey, the telemarketer would eventually ease into a sales pitch. This practice was commonly referred to as SUGing (i.e. selling under the guise of research). It seems like this practice has evolved into MUGing (or marketing under the guise of research). Over the last few years, it seems that more and more companies have turned to issues based marketing to demonstrate the need (or the danger of not using) a particular product or service. You see this stuff in press releases all the time – ‘gazillions of dollars lost as employees discuss Lost’. Now, don’t get me wrong; in general, I think that issues based marketing is useful tool for companies as they begin to engage their customers in a dialog — but the issues have to be real and there needs to be substantial data to support the findings. If done correctly, the customer gets useful information that enlightens them on real issues. Ultimately, it could even help them to make the right decision for the business. But quite frankly, the specious claims that I have seen lately have begun to verge on the ridiculous.