Form letters... why don't they even try?

I can see the use for form letters when a company needs / wants to reach out to a lot of people with information or offers. But why can't they at least change enough to make it seem like they at least have made an effort?

Case in point, this exerpt from what I found in my inbox this morning:

Quote:We have noticed your passion for shaving through your Instagram profile...

If it's not obvious; I DON'T HAVE AN INSTAGRAM PROFILE! And honestly; if a (large and well known) company can't simple things straight, I'm not sure what more they will screw up. It's just looks so unprofessional.

People are idiots. People work for companies. Companies are idiotic.

and here I thought everyone on the planet has an Instagram profile, Facebook account, Twitter account...

They simply don't care, Hans. They know that many shaving enthusiasts use these apps daily to upload photos and exchange likes, so they thought you could also be one of them. They sent the same email to all of their customers and subscribers.

If you ever wondered why forums are not like they used to be 3 or 4 years ago when it comes to participation, the answer to this is the trend of using social medias. Shaving companies use them a lot to advertise their products. Internet cookies know I read shaving forums and sometimes visit online shaving stores, so I often see shaving ads popping up when I log in to my FB profile.

the form letter has been subjected to intense statistical analysis. my guess is that personalizing a form letter does nothing to improve the response from the customer. it may actually lower the efficiency due to errors in spelling your name, greeting you with the wrong name etc.