January 2008


It’s amazing to me that large corporations decide not to participate in new media. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect every company to run a blog and a podcast, but I do expect them to be aware of online conversations - especially those that deal with their brands.

Amy Jussel, founder and executive director of Shaping Youth, contacted Target about a new ad campaign. Here is the response that she got:

Good Morning Amy,

Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest.

Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day.

I read blogs. I maintain a blog (not as well as I should). I also have 3 kids, and my wife and I practically have a second home at Target (it’s between the videos and the toy department). I AM YOUR CORE MARKET. If you look at statistics about blogs, you’ll find that most readers / contributors are.

Target, you are missing an opportunity. Speak with your customers, not just at them. If you ignore them, they might someday ignore you. Once again, thank you for your interest and have a nice day.

Hat tip to Joseph Jaffe.

For eleven glorious days, I didn’t keep up with my blogs. I have all of my blog subscriptions on my work computer which kept vigil at the office while I was enjoying some R&R. Today, I pay the price: A little more than 100 entries to read.

It’s days like these that I would like to remind myself and my fellow bloggers, “Hey, headlines are damned important.” Obviously, I won’t be reading every single blog posting from the last 11 days so I’ll be skimming lots of headlines.

Unfortunately, some people can’t write headlines. Some people don’t take the time to write them. Let’s all make a New Year’s resolution to change that…