Following a shenanigan-filled Easter weekend, I ventured out among normal humans, today, to pick up a noodle salad from Tesco.
When I left the store, with my noodle-based treat, I spotted something that irks me slightly – flyers flapping on windscreens.
The reason it irks me is that – as a method of communication – I can’t believe people/companies use this any more. It has to be one of the most ineffective ways of getting a message across to potential customers.
Why do I say this? Well, think about it…
When you first approach your car and, from a distance, see something flapping on your windscreen, what’s your first thought?
I reckon most people think: ‘oh sh*t, parking ticket.’
So you’re already negatively disposed to whatever it is on your windscreen, before you’ve seen it up close. When you do see what it is, and it’s not a parking ticket, you’ll be relieved. You’ll also realise that the paper on your windscreen isn’t important, so you can scrunch it into a ball and throw it away.
That aside, there’s something intrusive about having a marketing message stuck on your car (a message that you didn’t ask for).
Putting stuff through my letterbox is fine – a letterbox invites you to do that.
My car, however, does not invite you to put stuff on it. The fact that someone has lifted my windscreen wipers to put a message on there, makes the delivery method more intrusive.
There’s also no thought towards the mindset of the recipient, as they grab the flyer:
If I’m getting into my car, I’m invariably in a rush to get somewhere, at which point I don’t want to read a marketing message… but it’s blocking my line of sight, so it’ll be removed quickly e.g scrunched up.
Very rarely are these flyers anything to do with cars either. If they were marketing a local garage, reasonable prices for new tyres, a clutch and brake check, a car cleaning/valet service, that would make sense…
…which brings me on to the last point. This form of marketing is so aimless. Let’s say you’re advertising a new furniture store (or a chain of them): how many people, by way of pure chance, have come back to their car in just the right frame of mind to buy a new set of chairs?
Marketing in this way is so hit and miss.
There are some products and services where leafleting cars is relevant, but – by and large – I’d say leave well alone…