Tuesday, 01 September 2009

What’s a Worst Marketing strategy?

In life, I believe, as in everything else, it is one thing to receive service/product from strangers and accepted it by having known them as a brand and wanting to try their products through media, but, it is another to receive two calls in a months from the same brand or service provider claiming to cell you the same or slightly different product or service. All this, I call the Boredom Marketing strategy.

About 30 minutes prior to writing this blog entry, I had just received a call from Cell C offering me a cellphone and all goodies it comes with.

I was selected, according to the consultant – and not sure what method they used and where they got my number from, (or is it that I leave my cellphone number on most web sites like Facebook not intentionally?) – to have won some Nokia cellphone model.

To my surprise and that of the consultant – she was not informed or aware of my having been selected for “these Cellphone offerings of theirs” (South African Cellphone operators) just over a month ago and, which I accepted and am presently using.

Before she could even get into the big details of “these cellphone offerings of their” – I asked her nicely if she was aware of my having won the price offered to me last month to which I accepted, and she said NO.

Strangely, I asked myself, If she’s calling from Cell C as she claims (Or Cell C Connect, WHATEVER IT IS) how dare she’s not informed by her supervisors to which she could have received this approval to call me about ‘these cellphone offerings of theirs’ from?

Further, as she also claimed that she got my number “from our database” – who actually keeps it there and fails to take it out after having contacted me, I having accepted the offer, and now I being their customer, I kept asking myself.

Before the lady, I had earlier received a call from Cell C Connect regarding the contract I had entered into via the phone. The male consultant who called wanted to confirm my details and make sure that I was aware of the important things, some of which I probably forgot as this was done over the phone and not face-to-face.

Bizarrely, the bloody consultant who took my details at the time of entering into the contract had gotten all my details VERY WRONG, even my surname and name. Damn Consultants!

This left me a bit upset and wanting to cancel my contract with immediate effect (that I go straight into their retail store at a near by shopping centre), but I calmed down and thought, to myself, it is probably one of the silliest (is there such a word) mistake any (stupid) human being is likely to make.

Share some of you worst marketing strategy ever used on me, or that which you used on someone as part of your job/project or reject.

And on with my life I moved, and it sure was a Bad Marketing Strategy and what a Boredom one!

4 comments:

Brave Heart said...

Hi Akanyang
I coincidentally received a similar call in the early evening yesterday. Fortunately the consultant`s line was so bad I couldn`t hear a thing.
Tele-marketing has taken off in a big way and if people are not careful they will be sold duds.

Akanyang Merementsi said...

Where do thety get our numbers from actually?

Brave Heart said...

Institutions/companies/organisations that we give our personal details sell these to tele-marketers or marketing companies. As a result we have to fend off irritants who call us at odd hours selling odd goods.

Akanyang Merementsi said...

Actually, How far will Consumer Protection Bill go in as far as protecting us from things such as these.

Frankly, I think, they should learn to ask permission to forward our details to third parties.