Let’s dumb it down and look at the word “moron” first. I assume after we do that, most can determine what a marketing moron is.
Here is the definition from Wikipedia;
Moron is a controversial term once used in psychology to denote a category of mental retardation. The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement. Once the term became popularized, it fell out of use by the psychological community.
Origin and uses:
“Moron” was coined in 1910 by psychologist Henry H. Goddard from the Greek word moros, which meant “dull” (as opposed to “sharp”), and used to describe a person with a mental age located between 8 and 12 on the Binet scale. It was once applied to people with an IQ of 51-70, being superior in one degree to “imbecile” (IQ of 26-50) and superior in two degrees to “idiot” (IQ of 0-25). The word moron, along with others including “retarded”, “idiotic”, “imbecilic”, “stupid”, and “feeble-minded”, was formerly considered a valid descriptor in the psychological community, but it is now deprecated by psychologists.
I have been in the Internet Marketing industry for more than 12 years. I have worked with some great people who know their stuff BUT the bulk of the people I see in this industry are morons. Now you might say to yourself, “how can he call such a large group of people morons?” Well, it’s easy. At our morning sales meetings, I usually discuss where we are with open IO’s from affiliate networks and a large portion of the time the answer is always the same, we are waiting to hear back. Communications is a huge part of any business and communicating with your clients and vendors is probably the most important factor in keeping good working relationships intact. Below is a list of common sense items in working with clients and vendors that most people in the affiliate world, at least 75%-80%, don’t do on a constant or continual basis. Are you one of those morons, I mean people?
Do you:
1. Return phone calls the same day
2. Respond to emails in a timely manner
3. Follow up
4. Deal with issues and concerns timely
5. Know your business and what you are selling
These are just a few things in a long list of common sense items when dealing with customers or vendors in any line of business. I guess my biggest concern about marketing morons is mainly pointed at affiliate networks. I am curious if most affiliate networks hire morons to fill seats versus hiring qualified people to deal with their customers and vendors. The biggest bitch from salespeople in my office is; “I sent an IO last week, sent 3 emails to follow up and left 2 voicemail messages and have heard nothing back.” My question is then, “Why did you send them an IO?” and the response is, “Because they asked me to during the numerous phone calls we had after going through all of the details and working out the terms of the deal.”
You may think my article is a little harsh or over the top by including such a large group of people in my definition of marketing morons. You should think to yourself, does this happen to me? Does it take me 3 emails and 2 voicemails to not get a response from an affiliate manager OR am I the affiliate manager who is not responding, am I the marketing moron?