Are You Speaking Their Language?
A little background information for you. I’m a caucasian male, born and raised in Bellingham, WA. Except for a few French words and phrases left over from high school French classes, I only speak English.
Fast forward to the other day when I was opening a piece of junk mail from Korean Air. (Yes, I open my junk mail. I’m interested in how everyone approaches marketing/advertising)
That’s my name alright, but that’s as much as I was able to read since everything else was in Korean. My last name is Lee – and I’ve met people who first talked with me via phone or email bashfully admit that they assumed I was Asian based solely on my name – but sending me a letter written in Korean seems a little presumptuous not to mention lazy. While they did have an English version below the fold I didn’t notice it until I went to scan this letter for this blog post.
Maybe Korean Air doesn’t care. They probably accept that if they send their marketing letter to all the Lees in their purchased direct mail database that they’re going to hit a certain percentage of non Korean speaking people like me.
So a few thoughts…
Target marketing? Who needs a target?!
As ridiculous as this letter seems there’s a reason companies blindly send letters and email spam like this out – it works. If tactics like this didn’t work, you wouldn’t be getting all the spam, telemarketing and junk mail that you regularly do.
Know your audience.
We’re constantly reminding our clients to evaluate the ads, brochures, websites, etc. that we create for them through their customer and prospect’s eyes and not their own. Who cares what font or color your CEO likes – what do your customers want to see/hear?!
The letter I received is a pretty clear instance of missing or neglecting the audience. What about your company’s marketing materials or website? Sure, you’re probably not missing the mark as obviously as Korean Air is, but it’s worth taking a look to make sure you aren’t making any assumptions either.
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