Editor’s Leader

My terrier dog is a bit of a film star and was on the set of his second movie last month with his chaperone, my husband, who – in all the excitement – left his coat behind. Next day, we rang the ‘extras’ agency (a small family business) and asked how we could retrieve the item – could they mail it if we sent the postage. “We’re far too busy to do that” the young man snapped, before rudely hanging up. We rang the film production company – a vast, lofty organisation – which not only posted it on, but refused all payment. “No problem at all,” said the female Baby Boomer on the phone and in a short letter inside the eventual parcel. “It’s a pleasure to help.”
     How rare such gracious consideration is in today’s fast and terribly furious world . . . and who says you get a more personal service from smaller enterprises! Was it age which made the difference in attitude – is today’s ‘Generation X’ really so stressed there is no time for random acts of kindness?
      Here’s an email which irritated me recently:
‘Dear Hooton,
Please find attached our latest press release . . .’
    It might have been an error – or perhaps the author hadn’t grasped basic salutation principles. Maybe my first name or title had slid off his list. Whatever; I deleted it. I now ignore anything which I feel is not personal, pleasant or pertinent – whether it is direct mail, email or a webpage. If they can’t be bothered with correct addressing/protocol, neither can I.
     I was brought up with the homily: ‘Manners maketh the man’, so the above is a sea-change in my attitude and reflects a general disregard which I feel is insidiously creeping into all aspects of modern society: we are so busy we have become universally grumpy . . . and now we all have financial worries, too. In today’s crowded and cash-strapped marketplace, it seems the only people earning plenty of money are the wretched spammers. Yet, we must learn from that and find some way to safeguard the next major medium – the cell phone – from such abusers, who dirty the face of DM for the rest of us.
     Columnist Keith Wiser – recently crowned South Africa’s direct marketer of the year – believes lack of respect is hurting our industry and has ideas to turn this unfavourable tide. Meanwhile, the UK DMA is taking steps to redress the problem.
     Clearly, the world should be told how much it needs the direct marketing industry. What a Christmas gift it would be for a new generation of ethical, well mannered and perfectly-targeting direct marketers if we successfully polished up our image and put some DM sparkle back into bottom lines.