Bad Marketing Strategy?
April 11, 2003This is rather odd. I had a message waiting for me this morning to call a guy named Michael. I hadn’t heard a thing about the project he referenced in well over 6 months, and I had no idea who the guy was, or what his company did. But, hey, it was in association with a past job so I figured he must have a reason for wanting to talk to me.
So I called back. Introduction, company name, etc. etc. He asked me if I’d heard about what’s happening in the past two weeks, and I said, no, to be honest, I haven’t heard a thing about it since October or so. He kind of laughed, and then asked me a few more questions.
Am I an investor in the company? No. Do I use the company’s services? No. Do I invest in general? Uh, for the sake of argument, no, but what business is it of yours, Michael? And then he dove into a spiel on phenomenal growth and unprecedented earnings and so on and so forth.
I stopped him and said, hey Michael, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were trying to sell me something. Hemming and hawing, he confirmed this was in fact a marketing call.
Okay, what? I was a developer in a very vague sense for these guys. Their branding company contracted my company who put me on the job, which was actually the job referenced here. It was a tenuous connection at best, and now my name is on some guy’s marketing list. Wonderful.
like this one time, at webdesign camp…
hilarious dave. paul tells me the two of you finally got to meet last night at a Meetup event. How are those here in Vancouver (I never seem to make it out to these I am so busy)
Pretty good, actually. There was a diverse mix of people there — a few programmers/coders, a few designers, a few ‘do-it-alls’. Definitely worth the price of admission (which is a couple of beers, or similar). Next one’s in a month, I’m sure I’ll be there.
i enjoyed it too. always seems to turn into a client bitching-fest though when a group of designers get together (very amusing indeed).