A couple of Mexicans

Some years ago I was direct mail manager for a department store, and found myself in Jonesboro, Arkansas for a catalog press check. There were problems and I and the printer’s account rep spent several unanticipated days in this unfortunately dry (alcohol-wise) area of the South.  At one point, after a new disappointment, the rep pulled me aside and said, “I don’t like to say it, but this is what you might expect.”

What he meant to imply was that the project manager, who was African-American and in an unusually responsible position for a black man in the South at that time, was simply not up to the job. My reaction was not to agree with that observation but also not to disagree with it. I simply looked away, which wasn’t enough. Ever since then I have regretted my non-reaction.

This week I was involved in a complex real estate transaction involving a piece of property in the country and bats proved to be a problem—specifically a huge pile of bat guano in a barn which gives off toxic fumes. Hearing that we were getting estimates from bat remediation experts, the seller’s agent indicated that wasn’t an acceptable cost and “why don’t you just get a couple of Mexicans with shovels and garbage bags” to clean it up.

Everybody on our side of the transaction had the instant reaction that this was not an OK thing to say. Not only because of the statement, but also because of the attitude behind this and several other comments, we ended up abandoning the attempt to buy the property. Several people, from very different backgrounds and perspectives, felt the agent was not someone we could do business with.

Because this blog is about communication, a comment on the subtext behind the actual statements. In Jonesboro, it was “you and I as white Americans have the right to be indignant about being inconvenienced by this S.O.B.” This week it was “I want you to know I am an inflexible negotiator and am making a deliberately racist statement to show why you shouldn’t mess with me.” Since he knew he was offending, maybe this is progress of a sort?

Best day to send and receive email?

I started to write this post because it seemed to me that Saturday, 7/12, was my slowest email day ever. I had some down time and checked email frequently, and there just wasn’t anything there. Makes sense… business folks are supposed to be taking summer time off now, and marketers follow the trend.

This brought to mind the evergreen discussion about “what is the best day to send marketing emails?” Ideally, you want your email to arrive when the prospect is in a mood to read it, is not overwhelmed by business and personal emails, and you are not competing with too many fellow marketers. That day used to be Tuesday… people have caught up with their work that piled up for Monday, but promotions for the weekend have not yet begun. But then MarketingSherpa did a survey (measuring the percentage of recipients who open their email) and the best day turned out to be MONDAY. Maybe because all the other marketers thought Monday was terrible and stayed away?

Also, who says that it is automatically a bad thing to be arrive when lots of other offers are in the consumer’s inbox ? In Econ 101 we learned the best place to open a liquor store is not in a community where there are no liquor stores for miles around, but across the street from another liquor store. The community defines the relevance of the offer, and the competition increases the consumer’s awareness of the shopping opportunity. Similarly, back in my days as a direct mail manager the most heavily rented lists were also the most successful… even though you knew your offer was going to be in the mail box with lots of others, you were reaching “mail order buyers” who welcomed lots of messages rather than opening their mail over the recycling bin.

Back to my experience yesterday, I counted up and there were 49 messages including junk email. Yes, that’s a bit slow compared to a normal business weekday like 6/25, a Wednesday, when I got 164 messages. But then I went back and looked at the count for 6/29, another Saturday, and I got just 20 emails. And 7/5, the day after the holiday, I got only 10 emails. So my perception is WAY off and clearly colored by the fact I was busy the previous two weekends, but looking for something to do on 7/12. If a marketer had hit me with the right offer, yesterday they could have sold me the Golden Gate Bridge.