Comments on: I’m Not Your Catcher

By: Neil Anuskiewicz

Neil Anuskiewicz — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:05:08 +0000

I think it obligatory we include a Yogi Berra quote in this thread:
“The future ain’t what it used to be”

By: Steve Woodruff @swoodruff

Steve Woodruff @swoodruff — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:12:14 +0000

(WARNING – lame comment pun alert)
Thanks for stepping up to the box and taking some hearty swings, guys! I don’t want to stretch this single post into a double, so I’ll go back to the dugout now and give you some long relief…

By: Ann Handley

Ann Handley — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:07:35 +0000

Great post and apt metaphor, Steve.
What I really hate is when companies or individuals don’t even wait for me to lift my glove, or bother to see whether I’m going to, or whether I even HAVE a glove. Sometimes, they just whip the ball at me anyway, and it smacks me in the head. NOT COOL.
Example: Twitter auto-DMs that offer nothing but “read my blog! subscribe to my feed! check out my newsletter!” SMACK! OUCH.

By: Leo Dimilo

Leo Dimilo — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:01:48 +0000

love it. I have been watching marketers come into whatever’s hot at the moment and totally wreck a good thing.
The bad news is that this type of desperate marketer will never go away.

By: Gareth Cutter (eMailCampaigner)

Gareth Cutter (eMailCampaigner) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:59:08 +0000

An entertaining post Steve, I think your baseball anology is very apt for the issue of relevancy in marketing nowadays. Really, it should be more of a game of catch: marketer and consumer communicating and co-operating for mutual benefit, so no one drops the ‘ball’.
As you pointed out, there’s still a place for pitches but it seems to me there are two different scenarios: either get better at identifying your ‘catchers’ (those who will like the sound of your existing pitch – niche) or start working on your repertoire of pitches so you can throw to many. Just be ready for them to throw back!

By: Alan Wolk

Alan Wolk — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:49:57 +0000

Anyone who’s ever tried to extend a metaphor like that knows how difficult it is to pull off.
But you’ve got yourself a no-hitter there Mr. Woodruff.
One more thing I’d add: You need to make a product or service I actually like.
Without that, all the rest won’t matter.

By: Joe Cascio

Joe Cascio — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:12:00 +0000

To paraphrase Bull Durham, “hit the showers, Meat, you can’t find the strikezone.”
Well done, Steve. This role-reversal is starting to become really apparent with some web companies that have become big successes without a single sales or marketing person, a single ad, a single “campaign”.
But the clueless marketeer is merely symptomatic of the clueless executive who thinks top-down and sees the customer as an uncooperative, badly behaved adversary to be manipulated. Until management is willing to listen and more importantly RESPOND positively to what customers say and want, the output-only marketeer will continue to exist.