impulse...sometimes followed by regret

You would think a third year marketing student like myself would be fully aware to the behind the scenes of the marketing world and attempt to avoid all see-through marketing activities. However, this is not the case at all. I am simply a marketer's dream. I unconsciously switch from a marketer to a consumer in seconds, ready to buy something just to get the freebie, spend more to get the discount, enter the competition i know i won't win, and sign up to every VIP mailing list. After our lecture on spam last week, it clicked when i realised how many daily emails i was recieving. Even though i willingly gave my details to these companies, i still  felt like i was being spammed.  I decided to unsubscribe from the ones which were not giving me any value (some obviously breaching the unsubscribe functionality which i now have negative feelings towards their brands). My favourite one is DECJUBA as they inform me of their sales in a brief, relevant message and are not predictable in when they send these messages. They make me feel like a VIP, not just a target for their selling objective.

I think there is a fine line between keeping your brand in consumers minds and just annoying them until they one by one unsubscribe from your emails. Regular direct emails are more personal than social media, and generally annoy people more, than say a status from a group they liked on facebook, when they are not relevant. Consumers give marketers their details with an implied psychological contract that they don't abuse the privilige. If messages contain no value to the consumer, they should not have been sent at all. There is a high risk of negative brand associations if marketers are not respectful to the people on their mailing lists.

Are there any brands which you once loved, signing up to their mailing lists, which have abused your trust by sending you junk without value? How did it make you feel towards the brand?