Black Hole Marketing

I call any form of advertising and marketing that’s wasteful and pointless Black Hole Marketing.

Yes you aren’t crazy – there really are stupid marketers doing stupid things all the time.

To give you an example, I just saw yet another TV ad from Comcast, advertising their new bundled cable Internet and TV packages. A nice TV ad, and I’d be interested in the offer – except Comcast doesn’t offer service anywhere in the metropolitan area where I live (a very big city. Oh screw it, it’s Phoenix).

I bet this ad is shown in many other areas where Comcast isn’t even operating. Black Hole Advertising.

The same evening I see another TV ad, and get a pamphlet from Sprint in the mail. Both forms of advertising talk up Sprint 4G, Sprint’s new super fast wireless internet access service. Download and upload speeds rivaling cable. Awesome. I so want it.

Problem: it doesn’t exist yet, except in Baltimore. Later this year a few other cities should have Sprint’s 4G service too. So why advertise this nationwide? To hype up demand for 4G prematurely?

That’s stupid marketing.

It’s stupid because it costs a lot of money to produce and air television commericals, and to print glossy color pamphlets that are sent to hundreds of thousands of people who can never buy.

It’s stupid because it tells thousands (millions) of people about something they can’t get, making the offer pointless. It’s not a “hype” thing either because you can’t hype something if you never plan on selling that something. The Comcast ad is a great example. Comcast isn’t in Phoenix, and will likely never come to Phoenix. But their ads are shown here on local TV, during prime time. Phoenix’ ad marketing isn’t cheap. Why not put this money towards advertising in areas Comcast does have service?

Some genius at these companies’ marketing departments thought it’d be a good idea to spend a few million dollars advertising to people who are not – and never will be – customers.

That’s money down a black hole.

This is frivolous spending because it cannot possibly yield any positive results. And yet you see this type of idiotic marketing everywhere.

Whether the marketing/ad people are just not paying attention, don’t care, or are really that incompetent doesn’t matter – the result is the same: wasted money and energy.

So, is your marketing effort seen by people who can actually be your customers?