OK, that’s it. I’m done!
I’ve officially had enough, and I’m done sitting around letting it happen. This morning I paid $3.97/gallon for regular unleaded gas.
Today, I’m forgetting my column on catalog marketing and imploring you to take a stand. If you don’t want to take a stand — if you haven’t had enough of being gouged at the pump — please stop reading right here. Come back next week, and we can discuss adding new customers to your housefile.
But I can assure you that if we don’t take a stand on this issue, very soon there may not be a catalog industry. Frankly folks, we live in an oil-based economy, and there’s little we can do about it. Right?
Wrong.
There’s a reason ExxonMobil is the most profitable company on the planet. And no, I’m not singling out that one company. And I’m not for government controlling commerce, or profits, or even getting involved and regulating business. But really, enough is enough. Hey ExxonMobil, why don’t you create some good will and PR for yourselves and give some profits back during what’s seen as a time of crisis?
So here’s my stand. I’m calling on you and myself to act now, before someone on TV starts priming us for $6 gas prices for next summer’s driving season. Here’s a list of things you can do to help take a stand.
1. Make your voice heard, and contact your government officials. Here’s a link so you don’t even have to look for it: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml . I don’t care about your party affiliation or if you even have one. If you’re for alternative energy, say so! If you’re for more oil exploration within our country, say so! If you think the government is conspiring with big oil, speak your mind.
2. Drive less!
3. Car pool if you can. OK, I hate this idea. I love the solitude of my drive to and from work. But the less gas we use, the larger the message we send to the oil industry.
4. Tell everybody you know to take a stand. It’s your right to make our country better!
Maybe you won’t want to read my column anymore. Maybe you don’t think this commentary belongs in a catalog marketing forum. To you I say, sorry and too bad. You think your costs are high now? Very shortly you’re going to see an explosion in all of your expenses, thanks to the fact that everything you do requires fuel and transportation.
I’m doing my part by writing this article and practicing numbers one through four above. I’m part of the solution. I’m not sitting back and just taking whatever is dished out and accepting it!
How about you?
Speak to you next week, where I’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Jim Gilbert is president of Gilbert Direct Marketing Inc., a full-service catalog and direct marketing agency. His LinkedIn profile can be viewed at www.linkedin.com/in/jimwgilbert or you can post a comment here or e-mail him at jimdirect@aol.com.
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Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.