C-3PO Is Coming For Your Job

In the early 1990s I was working in the printing industry selling huge volumes of colour printing which was used to generate sales leads for businesses to then use direct mail to contact the prospects and sell them whatever.

It was relatively wasteful for every 1000 leaflets or inserts produced that might generate an enquiry or two and that might lead to 1 direct mail conversion. The cost could only be justified due to a feature known as “lifetime value”. Effectively it cost you money in the first year to recruit a customer but in time you hoped they stayed and in the second or third year you would be in profit.

This business model was used in many business sectors.

Then came the internet. It was obvious that if a company did not use this business model but instead let people find them it would save them money. To lure internet users into “looking” people selling online had lower prices. That was not a big stretch – because they could work with lower costs.

This clearly worked well in retail where you would go into John Lewis get the sales person to demo the item and then go online and buy it from Amazon, or similar.  I shall never forget going into an electrical store seeing a great TV and then pointing out that I could buy it for £100 less online. The salesman, shrugged his shoulders and said “just do it”. In those days the TV was nearly the size of a small car in its box.

Clearly the internet changed the world of marketing, there was a huge decline in the printing of colour leaflets. 80% of the British printing industry disappeared and the cost of reaching new customers plummeted, in the early 2000s.