Doug DavidoffA new daily newspaper made its introduction to my neighborhood recently. It’s delivered to my door, it’s free, and I want it to stop. Yesterday, driving into my community, I realized I was not alone. All the other notices had been removed from our community bulletin board to make room for a large posting informing everyone how to have delivery of this paper (to which no one subscribed) stopped. Needless to say, I’ve made the call (though I still need to see how long it will take to get results).
This got me thinking, this ‘free’ daily has become awfully expensive for the members of my community considering all the time and energy they have had to put into dealing with it. As I’ve often written, if you fail to create value, you destroy it. This ‘free’ paper solved no problem for me. But, it has created a problem –our paper recycling storage cans fill up twice as fast as before.
I did not lack information, news or opinion. The new paper has done nothing to position itself as anything that I should pay attention to. Probably the most despicable thing is that the people who publish this newcomer failed to ask for my permission before invading my lawn. Now, I have to spend valuable time to get this unwelcome publication out of my life.
Businesses do this all the time. They fail to determine whether or not they are creating value when they create an encounter with their clients and prospects. In the effort to market themselves, companies increase the costs in time or energy to the very same people they say they are trying to help. Next time you do something with or for your prospects/clients, ask yourself if you are truly creating value – or are you just creating more trash for them to deal with?