Friday, April 3, 2009

Marketing, Marks and Fractions

Marketing blog thought for the day.

You can no longer market to the anonymous masses. They're not anonymous and they're not masses. You can only market to people who are willing participants.

Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring. Today, it's almost certainly the opposite of what you're doing.


That is generally the simple concept of 21st century marketing. It is why newspapers can not charge thousands for an ad any longer. There are more effective ways to market now and it is why permission and targeted marketing spending via the web was up in Q4, while everything else was taking a bath. Businesses are not spending this way because they want to show their friends a neat google ad on their laptop at a pool party, they do it because it works.

Hey how 'bout Bob Marks, Manager at Perretti Farms? He is (partially) interviewed on harness racing today in the Guelph paper. I generally like Bob's opinion. He is a breeder, but also cut his teeth as a bettor. Far too often we have only one opinion represented from the horseman side and we need someone with more than one perspective and Bob tends to fit that bill. One item we have mentioned here before he agrees with:

Further, Marks said judges often aren't trained to protect the bettors' best interests. He believes the betting customer should not only be heard more, a professional handicapper should be empowered at each track to aid the judges in officiating the sport.

I was watching Turfway out of the corner of my eye today. I heard the first fraction of 28.3 and wondered what in the heck was going on. It was a 2 mile race. The half was 55.3, the three quarters 123.3 and the mile 153.2. It is bizarre to hear those fractions in a runner race. I guarantee you that thoroughbred players watching the race were having a tough time doing the math with those fractions, whereas we were reciting the quarter splits off the top of our heads....... sheesh, with a 55 middle half no wonder they only came home in 29.4, huh? :)

3 comments:

Wind Gatherer said...

You know, I'm watching the replay from The Meadowlands, and there is a runner called Black Watch in the 4th, so I am interested. He's the 3 horse, 10-1 and nowhere.

What I just realized is that the saddle cloths are different and the blue cloth I was following in the race is not the 3 but the 2. I know the game is different but a little standardization would be nice.

Pull the Pocket said...

I got to the track early last week and watched four tbred races in a row before watching the 1st at the Meadowlands for harness. I bet three and was cheering for the two so don't feel bad.

Good idea.

Anonymous said...

PTP
On Slate Magazine under The Big Money...The Anatomy of a Web Adertising Scam...by Chadwick Matlin. Might be of interest to a marketing guy.
RG

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