Telemarketing

Telemarketing

After sitting down to a family meal, it is not an uncommon event for the telephone to ring. No one likes an interrupted meal, and even the call of a close friend can be unwelcome. Anymore, one would be lucky if that call were even from an acquaintance. Telemarketing is an intrusive marketing tactic that should not be used.

Telemarketing is probably one of the most controversial direct marketing tactics, yet what is considered telemarketing is not always universal. (Fisher 2) Telemarketers are those who invade the privacy of innocent consumers with an agenda to force their product and wedge their message into the homes of their unsuspecting prey. (3) This invasive tactic has been used by major corporations, charities, and even political candidates. (3)

Richard Braddock, who heads Citicorp's consumer banking division stated on telemarketing, "Ð'...this technology creates the potential for invasion of customer privacy." (Quelch 477) Companies gather information about individual consumers and target their marketing to a consumer's interests or potential interests. (476) Some companies maintain databases containing personal information, such as addresses, Social Security numbers, and even the magazines that a person subscribes to. (Maas 605) It is even possible for a bank to collect specific information about someone's credit history and make it available to prospective lenders who then call to push their credit services on consumers. (Quelch 476)

Palmer 2

The differences between telemarketing and traditional sales techniques show the inferiorities to telemarketing. (Fisher 174) For one, in a traditional selling environment, the consumer usually approaches the seller. The consumer chooses to walk into a store and therefore be marketed toward. (175) With telemarketing, there is no choice. The seller is now the one approaching the consumer. At any given moment, a kitchen phone can become a virtual marketplace, leaving the consumer with little or no choice. Quite simply, telemarketing is an in-your-face selling technique that the consumer has very little option of turning away from. (176)

Not only is telemarketing an annoyance, but it is also unsafe. Each year, American consumers are losing more than $40 billion in telemarketing fraud. (Ditch the Pitch 1) In many cases, the telemarketers are across borders and just outside of U.S. jurisdiction, so that consumers can not recover from their losses. (1) One scams involves an offer for credit card insurance. (1) This insurance proves useless, since the liability for any unauthorized charges to a credit card is only fifty dollars. (1-2) Other telemarketers promise winnings from an international lottery. (2)