In the course of mailing this list, a consumer complained to our client that she was being spammed and she demanded that we tell her where we got her name and how it ended up on that particular list. People who think they are being spammed typically hit the spam button or just opt out. In this case the consumer was very angry and demanded a full explanation.

We have very good database analysts and our service bureau is also a firm with high integrity. Between us we were able to pinpoint the specifics about the record and her name was removed from our database and all of the databases of our service bureau.

We were able to tell her how her name was originally acquired and we could provide her with assurances that her name would never be used by us or our service bureau again.

Her response to our client was worth the effort:

“Thank you! I must say, I have tried to find out how my email address was obtained before, with other companies, and this is the first time that someone actually followed through.

I know that you must be busy, and I appreciate your personal consideration more than you know. …You do your company proud.”

What did we learn? I would argue that we learned the following:

1) Consumers are smart and they will stand up for what they want.

2) They want honesty. When they get it, they love you. It’s when they are lied to that all hell breaks loose. (Science fiction fans will remember the reveal abour why the HAL 9000 computer went homicidal in 2001: A Space Oddessy).

3) Clarity and Accountability for consumers should be the hallmark of every good marketing organization.

Ted, scion of the Spiegel cataloging family, was very important to me because he helped establish Medill’s graduate direct marketing program in 1987. It was the first program of its kind in the nation and where I got the educational foundation that has formed the basis for my career in digital marketing. Besides being a professor and leader, I considered Ted to be a friend and I will sorely miss him as will his legions of former students and colleagues.

One thing that will always stick out in my memory of Ted and his wonderful wife, Audry, were the holiday postcards that they would send each year. These postcards always featured a picture of Ted and Audry in some kind of extreme sport. Ones that come immediately to mind were “Barn Door Halibut Fishing in Alaska” and “Heli-Hiking” God knows where. I will have to dig up a few of those and post them.   <strong>Some Biographical Information on Ted:</strong> As founder and president of Spiegel Marketing worked as a consultant to businesses, government entities and nonprofits since 1987. His expertise in catalog marketing and business strategy helped clients ranging from Walt Disney to Reader’s Digest to the Library of Congress. As a professor emeritus in service, Spiegel remained  engaged in the Spiegel Digital and Database Research Initiative he helped envision and launch.   In 1991 he received the Charles Down Award as Chicago Direct Marketer of the Year, in 1992 the Edward Mayer Award from the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation for Educational Leadership, and in 2005 he was inducted to the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame. He has served on the Board of Directors of Spiegel, Inc., Integrated Marketing Solutions, a subsidiary of Swiss Colony, Digital Impact, American Blind, CM Partners, and many more. He is the author along with Susan Jones, his partner at the Callahan Group, of MARKETING CONVERGENCE: How the Leading Companies are Profiting from Integrated Online and Offline Marketing Strategies. In 1989 he received a Doctor of Laws, Honorary Degree from National College of Education.

Ted will surely be missed but his memory and influence will never be forgotton.

CONTENT. Ah, yes, that pesky critical factor carried over from the world of traditional book publishing. Content matters. No two books are the same. No two authors are the same. No two readers are the same. A bestselling book does not mean it is the best book; a bestselling writer does not mean he or she is the best writer. Everyone has an opinion, everyone has their own tastes—so why on earth would anyone settle for an eBook system where no one can find anything? Where readers are constantly being told what to read and never allowed to browse on their own?
Quality of content and reader discovery are everything at Author & Company, and quality of content and reader discovery informs everything we do. We’re on the cutting edge of technology, yes, but we are book lovers first.

• Shelves teemed with electronic editions of authors’ best work, carefully nurtured by editors and publishers.
• Readers could find specific books in a split second, or they could spend hours, if they chose, wandering among thousands of books, without interruption, never hitting a wall.
• Novels would (finally!) be cross-referenced by subject matter so readers could find the novels they really want to read.
• There would be lots of lists, lovingly curated to help readers. Prize lists and bestseller lists, of course, but also lists from small groups of friends, co-workers and students from around the country, all eager to share their favorite titles.
• Authors, writers groups, publishers and everyone who loves books would finally find a home.

But Look at What Happened.  The dream bookstore is a burgeoning nightmare.

• Quality literature is being purposely drowned, unreachable in a sea of amateurish prose.
• Clutter and confusion rule, forcing book publishers to pony up or let their titles sink into oblivion.
• Readers are distracted by visual assault from every direction.
• Sites are designed to restrict readers’ movements and imaginations, forcing them down the paths and toward the products of the merchant’s choosing.
• Over 95% of all fiction simply can’t be discovered unless the reader already knows the title or author’s name
• Merchandisers are doing everything in their power to wrest control of pricing away from book publishers, to devalue the work of authors and editors and undermine traditional book publishing as a whole.