Permission marketing requires marketers to obtain the consumer’s consent before delivering a marketing message (one that is relevant and timely, of course). It is the opposite of traditional interruption marketing, which is delivered whether whether the consumer likes it or not. Permission marketing was an answer to an increasingly cluttered messaging environment in which marketers competed with each other to communicate with consumers.

(via Zoutedrop - Creative Commons)

A new way of looking at the question of who gets to reach the consumer focuses on a different dimension: not clutter, but time. Marketers are competing with consumers for the right to communicate. Consumers can, as Joe Marchese of Social Vibe puts it, “‘outbid’ marketers for their own attention.” In other words, if their time is worth more than marketers are willing to pay for their attention, consumers may be willing to pay not not to be interrupted by marketing messages.

So, what is a consumer’s attention worth? Most consumers behave as if their time and attention in short supply – something that increases with income. This makes attention an increasingly scarce, and therefore pricey, commodity. A marketer’s ability to communicate a message to a consumer comes down to what that consumer thinks their time is worth. In one of his posts, Marchese uses the example of a marketer who effectively values attention to a 30-second pre-roll (the ads before a web site opens) at one cent per impression. Marchese suggests that since almost everyone values their time at more than $1.20/hour, most would pay the penny rather than sit through the ad.

We can see this with smartphone apps, which often are released in both “lite” and “full” versions. The lite version has most of the web application’s features, carries ads and is free. The full version contains the full feature set but no ads and is not free. It would be interesting to know how much of the purchase price consumers who buy the full version are mentally allocating to the added features and how much to the freedom from ads. Still, marketers are drawn to this business model because downloads of the “lite” versions are said to drive sales of the paid app.

Smaller marketers aren’t competing for consumers’ attention with TV spots and web site pre-roll. Frequently, they are using inherently cluttered media such as newspapers and directories. But regardless of the marketing channels they use, small marketers need to understand how difficult it is to capture and sustain consumers’ attention. With limited time, consumers’ will pick and choose from the messages that are out there, or may simply decide that it’s worth some money to enjoy content free of any messages.

How can smaller marketers compete for consumers’ attention? If there is a market for consumer attention, presumably the price fluctuates. Smaller marketers need to be nimble enough to take advantage of these price changes and bid for consumer attention only when the price goes down. When does that happen? Perhaps when the message can be linked with something with which the consumer has a positive association. The most obvious example is the Super Bowl, in which the interruption of the game is not only accepted but welcomed. When else might the price go down? Perhaps when the consumer is engaged in an activity that makes them feel good, or feel good about themselves. Smaller marketers that associate themselves with a charitable cause may be able to communicate marketing messages as part of the communications that relate to the cause. And perhaps when the “marketer” is actually a fellow consumer. This is one of the insights underling social shopping: that consumers will more readily accept, trust and act on messages from peers than from marketers.

The Zavee takeaway:

• Time is the commodity in short supply, so the competition for consumer attention is less with other marketers than with the consumer.
• Consumers may outbid you for their own attention, even if they have to pay to make you go away.
• The price of consumer attention constantly changes. Figure out when the price goes down and be nimble enough to seize the opportunity.