Direct Marketing, why do it?

Have you ever walk down a busy street, or getting out of the MRT station… and you find that there are more than one DM people, distributing all sorts of flyers… actually more like shoving the flyers into your hands? Welcome to the world of direct marketing.

Of course, flyer distribution is not the only direct marketing tactics, but in this case I think it is most ineffective.

Today I saw someone distributing a flyer. It was promoting the OCBC credit card and its benefits. At least in Singapore, you need to be above certain age (I think it’s 18, but I got it much later, so I’m not sure) and earning a minimum of S$30,000 before you can apply for one. Now then, what’s the point of distributing the flyer to a 5 years old kid? That’s exactly what I saw… within the short walk from Somerset MRT to Centrepoint, I saw the OCBC brochures given to a 5 years old kid as well as a group of girls, I think probably around 16 – 18 years old. That’s total wastage manz.

And after a distribution point, you’ll see a rubbish bin load of the flyer within 10 steps away… I am sure 90% of the people who receive the flyer, didn’t even take a good look at it, and just trash it. It’s not too bad when they trash it in the trash cans. Sometimes you see the flyers just thrown onto the floor. Now we have to spend more tax money cleaning after.

What’s the point?