I’ve often written about the damage that can be caused, when you push your marketing at people. No matter how great your product or service is, how great your offer is or how good your intentions are, people hate having things forced upon them.
Apple learned this recently, with a poorly judged marketing decision to help promote their new iPhones.
The gift that backfired
As part of the launch for Apple’s new iPhones, Apple pushed a copy of the new U2 album Songs of Innocence, into 500,000,000 iTunes accounts. Half a billion people found they had purchased the album, without their permission. Although the album was free, the fact it was forced on people resulted in a huge, negative backlash, which has lasted for a week so far.
The resulting bad publicity saw websites around the world, including the BBC, offer advice on how to remove the album from your iTunes account. Then Apple themselves were forced to respond, by providing a page on their website, see above, which showed users how to delete the album they never asked for.
This response by Apple was then reported on, prolonging the bad publicity.
The lesson?
People dislike having what YOU want, forced on them.
Even though the album was free. Even though the album is pretty good. Even though U2 have a large, international fan base and have won more Grammy Awards than any other band in music history, no one asked for the album. The album was pushed at them.
The lesson here is that when you push marketing at people, they push back. Instead, earn permission and act within the expectation of the relationship you have with your audience.
