Cleaning out my screen capture folder, I found this grab that was perfect for a rant on the problems with poorly managed data. Nearly two years ago, I converted my Business Week subscription from print to digital for my iPad. It appears that the non-digital side of Business Week was not aware of my transition, as I received multiple offers to subscribe, and they tested numerous price points.
In a single day, I received three offers from them for the print version of the magazine.
Offer 1 – 26 Issues for $20
Offer 2 – 50 Issues for me and a gift of 50 issues for $30.00
Offer 3 – 50 issues for $75.00
In all three offers in the codes at the top, the expiration of my print subscription was listed, so they knew I was a previous subscriber. I assume they did not mine the database to know that I converted that account to digital—these were clearly to get me to come back to print.
The fundamental part of my rant is getting these three offers on the same day. This is just silly. Typically, I throw them into recycling, but I was curious. I examined the three offers more closely. Had I received them on different days, I would not have been able to compare them, and if any of them seemed valuable, I might have bought them.
Offer 3 is no longer available since it is the most expensive of the three.
Offer 2 seems to be the best deal since it is twice the number of issues of Offer 1, and I get to make someone else happy by sending them 50 issues. Unfortunately, most people I know read it digitally, so there is no one to give it to.
Offer 1 is not bad, but it is not as good as #2.
I just thought that in the age of big data and rising mailing costs, a company like Business Week would be more strategic about these offers—staggering the days, for example. The worst offender is American Express. I often get 10 of the same offers in the mail for my various jobs and companies over the years. A simple check of the company would reveal that half of them are inactive, and I am not associated with any of them. Again, big data can help sort all of this out.
