This,Clever,Marketing,Friday,g marketing Is This Clever Marketing?

Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie

On Friday I got home to the usual pile ofpost - credit card statement, bank statement, TV license and other hugelyexciting stuff, and also... a handwritten letter.  I was quite excited as these days these are fairly few andfar between and are generally either an invite, or photos of my friends' kids.  I opened it up to find a newspaperclipping, and a Post-it note "Saw this and thought of you. J"  Well I was stumped, trying to think of anyJs I knew?  Hmm... It's not unusualfor friends to send me ideas and articles about all kinds of things, but thiswas for a series of motivational products - grow your business at 1,000% typething and how many people would send me something like this?  I started reading the article whichsounded more and more like a get rich quick scheme to me.  And that's when I looked a little bit moreclosely at the Post-it and the envelope and realised that although they lookedhandwritten... they were actually typed. The key giveaway really was that my company name was included, and mostfriends wouldn't bother to put this on.  I was torn - partly I was impressed by thethought that gone into creating what was essentially a piece of junk mail, butwhich I had not only opened, but spent 5 minutes reading, and partly I wasaffronted - I had been tricked into thinking this was from a friend.  Was I just being a bit dim, it beingFriday afternoon?  Well I took itin to the office this week - where I work in... the Marketing Department,handed it to a colleague of mine, who spent 10 minutes reading it before havingit pointed out to her that it wasn't a letter from a friend of mine.  And she is fairly on the ball.  Clever marketing or a scam?  Personally, even if a friend had sentthis to me I wouldn't buy it - it's just not my kind of thing - and I have somany motivational and positive resources recommended to me by good friends(real, actual, alive friends) that this would come near the bottom of my wishlist. I guess I worry for more vulnerable people, people like my family orelderly relatives who might take action based on something like this, whereas adodgy internet scam would pass them by (mainly because they don't reallyunderstand email.)  But again, Idoubt anybody who is at least a little switched on would even consider buyingthis product - but I guess somebody does?  It's a fine line - how many people havereceived a Christmas card before being a little deflated that it's from asupplier, some are even efficient enough to send out birthday cards, but aren'tthey always a bit of a let down? (Presents from a supplier or agency are never a let down I hasten to add- always feel free to send me goodies!) But I'd say you could probably put that under the header of maintainingbusiness relationships - but what if it's from a potential supplier - someonetrying to ingratiate themselves? Isn't it just a bit random?  I think we've got used to the relentlessdeluge of email junk - and I have to say there are some pretty good junk mailfilters - and it's common enough to get birthday e-cards because so manywebsites ask for your date of birth, but I don't know, is it me or is theresomething a bit intimidating when it crosses over into the real world?  As a frequent visitor of internetdating sites it's one thing to get random emails from strangers, and dozens ofwinks, flirts, pokes or whatever, but if one of them was to send me a letter,or a bunch of flowers (now here presents or flowers are just plain weird) I'dbe calling the police, contacting the website, getting another Rottweiler andprobably camping out at a mate's house while I organised the movers.  In the end I think it's a shame.  The internet, and indeed any goodmarketing, should be about bringing people together, and bringing them to whatthat they are looking for, whether it's hotels, spas and everything else I includeunder the heading of "escapes" on my site or that special person, butwhen people start using information freely given on one site to scam or justrandomly market, or in the case of internet dating send inappropriate emails(and sometimes photos!) then it puts people off going on the internet at all -let alone giving the information that can enable them to get the best of theweb.  I made the decision early onto treat all of my customers as I would my friends.  I am inundated with offers that I could add to my site, butmy criteria for adding anything is stringent and simple:  Is it something I have tried andtested?  (Because I wouldn'trecommend to a friend anything I hadn't already tried out.)  And is it something I would buy?  Sometimes it's a no brainer - would Igo back there?  If so, I'llrecommend.  Other times it's alittle more complicated - JML sent me a special offer for a Magic Bulletblender set.  I absolutely lovethis product and yes I would totally recommend it, it's changed my world,but... the pack they are selling is about 4 times the size of the one I boughtand 3 times the price.  Would I buyit?  Actually no, £60 is more thanI would spend and this is more kit than I would like in my kitchen.  So the offer went in the bin.  I could take the other route and advertiseeverything, but I'm just getting started and I want to start with the highestpossible standards, build a loyal customer base who try the recommendedproducts and services and come back. There is plenty of time for me to get jaded and less conscientiouslater!  In business, as in life, our choices defineus, and that includes what we choose not to do as much as what we do.  In this case what we choose not tosell, or how we choose not to sell. Let's err on the side of integrity and honesty - otherwise we riskswitching people off to the idea of internet marketing at all, and, in the end,switching off the internet.