Trade Publication Salespeople

I'm the marketing & pr manager for a decent sized company in the Midwest. We're not a Midwestern company as our sales are literally worldwide, but with the greatest concentration still in North America. Anyway, I get a LOT of calls from trade publication (i.e. magazine) salespeople who want me to advertise with them. I've been in my particular industry for over ten years now. Practically no one reads trade publications in our industry so there's little reason for print advertising. Furthermore, their electronic advertising also tends to be pretty worthless. I KNOW this based on my experience and we choose to market in much more creative and effective ways. But it doesn't matter to the salesperson who is convinced that his/her magazine is the "perfect fit" for my company. They're just doing their job and I totally understand. However, when I tell them that I'm not interested I don't feel as if I owe them any explanation--especially when I took the time to call them back (after they called three times in two days) and it just so happens that I was lucky enough to get their voice mail.

So, if you're out there, slightly annoying sales guy, please don't take it personally that I have zero interest in spending money on your dumb magazine that no one reads. And I don't have to tell you why because I know that no matter what I say you will have a stupid response. I cannot win with you and I don't want to waste my time trying to explain it.

I'd rather waste my time ranting about it on a blog that I have not utilized in nearly a year. Now go take on your day.

The Staples Clearance Sections

I'm going to vent just a bit. I find myself in Staples way too often picking up certificates, labels, presentation folders, special mailing envelopes, etc. One thing I've noticed over the past year or so is that they've devoted more and more space for big fancy CLEARANCE sections throughout the entire store. Nothing attracts bargain savvy customers like a CLEARANCE section.

The universally accepted idea of a CLEARANCE section (and I'm not sure why I'm still spelling it with all capital letters, but why change it now?) is that you put items there that you want to get rid of...and you drop the price so as to facilitate the process. You all get that, right? In fact, some of you have probably worked in retail and you understand that this is how it works.

But Staples either doesn't get the concept or they're hoping that people are retarded enough to buy a 2009 desk calendar in the middle of May marked down to just $18.99 when you can buy similar calendars (or even better ones) for the same price or less in the non CLEARANCE areas. It doesn't matter what item you find in the Staples CLEARANCE section, IT WILL NOT BE A BARGAIN. For instance, leather and leatherette laptop cases are in the front of the store on a CLEARANCE table starting at just...$79.99! Discontinued markers are ON CLEARANCE for just $5.99. Who pays $5.99 for a marker?

The Staples definition of CLEARANCE is...

"Let's see how much we can get someone to pay for this if we put it in a CLEARANCE section."

So, I challenge you all. The next time you're out, stop into a Staples and tell me what you see.