Like everyone else i hate SPAM – so i was a little surprised when a big company like Independent Newspapers – responsible for the Evening Herald and Irish Independent Dublin City editions, started resorting to Spam to try to make sales – there’s desperation and then there’s plain cheapening the brand.
Shows a real lack of ability on advertising excutive and in my opinion totally lets down the brand badly. Worse still the Papers send out testomonials from reputable companies (so they’re brand is also diminished by being associated with spam) and the arrogant muppet marked the spam as “URGENT”. Someone please tell Peter he’s a tool:
Ps. I would strongly recommend against ever hiring intercall.ie if they are ok with using the medium of spamming to sell. I e-mailed them about it, but i sincerely doubt they care enough to respond.
I’ve had a few reminders of fundamental marketing concept reminders that i recieved from some unlikely characters lately. They got me thinking a lot and i felt it was worthwhile sharing.
1. 11811 – Offering a service. What the homeless have to contribute.
I really have to point out that the people i saw implementing this concept were not homeless it was more like lazy busking… But probably would have got an even better response if they were homeless and making effort to contribute. Two guys with a cardboard sign, operating an “Enqueries” service outside a busy train station. Folks would ask them – “Which way to…” a hotel / street / attraction etc and then throw them a few coins. Its a perfect service as it meets a requirement and give people an option for an easy answer rather that ask a stranger. Most homeless would know the streets pretty well (no pun intended) and would have a good knowledge where things in their territory are. If only they knew how to monetarise the intellect they don’t know they have.
2. The Fussy Homeless man who choose his customers.
A good lesson from the down and out.
Not meaning to be disrespectful of any ones unfortunate situation or circumstances, but i met the most interesting homeless fella when in London. He was anything but the normal sight you see begging. This lad was drinking Champagne / Sparkling Wine from a brown bag and the first time i saw him was reading a 600 page crime thriller novel – it was a Wednesday afternoon and he was a the exit of the Underground. As i paused to check directions the guy checked his watch, put away the bubbly and book – seconds later the crowds rushed out off the latest arrived train, several contributed to his hat and as soon as the volume of the rush went away his focus was back to his book and away from his hopeful glares that caught the eyes and wallets of his contributors. There were still the occasional passerby, but these went as productive times. I remember in a brief moment of bemusement thinking that the guy was more self-actualised than the vast majority of his contributors (clients).
The guy had his business worked out and his goals set clearly. He didn’t want to spend all his time begging, was there a return begging while it was quiet – well yes – but he’d rather focus his marketing during the busy times when the return was higher. Its the classic 80-20 rule and certainly an area many of us can improve on. We spend 20% of the time going after 80% of the business. Maybe like the homeless guy we should just let some customers drift by and focus on where the big money is.
Just wanted to give a quick plug to the guys at Party.ie. Its a really great resource site that pulls together all the different elements that you need to pull together a good party! Everything from Kids parties to Weddings are catered for.
Was impressed when one of the founders of the site told me about www.moneyfish.ie. It’s an online comparison website for financial services. While the concept is not new in itself, we’ve been severly lacking this kind of thing here. In the UK Martin Lewis at www.MoneySavingExpert.com constantly alerts people do the best value deals in all sorts of area’s and i think it’s such a shame we don’t have the same here to encourage value amongst consumers and in my opinion as a result this Paddy Tax Society operators are not encouraged to be more competitive. Have a glance between the best credit card deals on Money Fish and The Money saving expert to see what i mean – Were getting shafted!
I get the impression that MoneyFish are going to be growing a lot in the next while so fingers crossed that the site will be continually updated and a forum etc will be added. Best of luck guys!
Vodafone Wireless Broadband Cards offer a roaming Add on, but be very very very careful if you take them up on it. We opted in because having crossed the boarder to northern Ireland a while back i got a nasty bill for a few thousand, which in fairness to them they did resolve, but still considering its all a Vodafone network i thought it was on necessarily high. So we added the roaming option to cut the costs down. Unfortunately we get lots of e-mails and ocassionally they contain big PDF’s. Going over the 50 mb roaming limit cost around 360 Euro (76 mb over). Next time i’ll find an internet cafe.
Roamer be warned!
I wonder when someone’s going to do a MAXROAM style data card!
Was listening to a discussion on the way home tonight about the riots in Finglas and wether the police were to blame for taking, essentially, six hours to mobilise. For anyone that hasnt heard about the riot, 200 thugs stole cars and then burned them out all afternoon to celebrate St.Patricks day. One old man was literally dragged from his car and badly beaten before then burned his car out. Then in came the police and reportedly beat anyone that made an easy target, including a man who was holding his child at the time, reportedly.
What struck me was the lack of foresight and the everyones focus on poor us, its beyond our control. Like the thugs are running the country. Granted they seem to have control of one area and intimidate the police there, but the problem with thugism by its nature is there not really that smart.
I work in Finglas on a weekly basis and i can honestly say the vast majority of people are absolutely lovely there. Its really sucks for them that in this current house market collapse (yes i did say collapse – its truely done for the next 10 years) that this one event will shave 10k of the price on every house in that area. Who wants to move to Berry Field now? Which really sucks for the young couples who put there life savings into getting their first house.
But i’m not really one for harping on whats happened, i’m more interested on what can be done going forward. First of all, lets quit this pussy footing around attitude that these things get treated with. The country need to invest some money and resources to send a message that this isnt acceptable behaviour. Spend now, pay the interest save the expenditure over the long run. It sounds crazy but some of these kids really dont know any better and have no idea that theres any consequences to their actions.
Here’s some poor quality footage Jazz Biscuit found:
So what should be done. First of all – make a public announcement that this is not acceptable and any participation in such mob mentallity will be given extra hard consquences. Then make the police accountable too, if for no other reason that to stop the “innocent bystandards” calling foul and creating further anomisity towards the guards – and lets face it there are some ego tugging bully type guards who love giving a good dose of power tripping and the occasional elbow… The riot gear needs to be updated to include cams on each helmet with voice recording. These videos should be used to track down every last one of the offenders and fine them at the pre tax / pre social welfare / pre child allowance – yes do blame the parents, if your not looking after them then why should we pay for you to look after them. Then there should be serious community service orders, lots of hours – real hours. If it takes two hours to paint a graffitied wall and the person on community service takes 4 hours – then it should count as two hours, go be slow in your own time, if nothing else it’ll teach em to be efficient. Like wise if they learn to be good at painting walls and do it in one hour, then that counts as two and they should be given more of the work they are good at so they get through to work / service quicker. Welcome new contributor to society.
BEFORE the riot police go in the should announce with big loud speakers that everyone should disperse and anyone insisting on sticking around will be considered an accessory to the problem. If your there your not innocent. Its a mob mentallity, even the most hardest criminal doesnt pull an old man out of his car and beat the living day lights out of him for no reason – the guy did it because he got caught up in the moment and wanted to impress his peers by being extra hard.
If its a trouble stop, CCTV the trouble out of it. Make tampering with a CCTV camera as criminal as the offense that wasnt prevented because of its lack of functioning. Make a clear message, this isnt ok, you are being watched, you will get done for it. Have lots of mobile cameras guards can put on top of their cars etc. Name and shame if needs be, upload videos on a website and ask the public to annomously suggest who that person is. These people aren’t faceless.
And lastly this bull about guards being afraid / not bothered to go in and deal with riots. Too many thugs get away with violence toward guards. I remember seeing a male shoplifter swinging for a female guard (i and at least three other bystandards were willing to step in to assist her except for the fact that this tough cookie could handle herself better than all of us put together and didnt need it); but i did think at the time if there was a gang i would have hesitated – which made me feel ashamed, but there you go. Anyway there should be a really hard line taken with this kind of thing, if your proved to have assaulted a member of the force entrusted to protect the people – there has to be real consequences. You should have severe clout behind you if someone purposely endangers you when your doing your job. I’m not taking just a sentence, im taking manditory imprisonment untill sentencing, you want SKY TV???? Keep dreaming yourself to sleep, have the sentences shorter but the prision experience more memorable and the community service experience even longer lasting…
In support of the Paddy Tax Campaign i’m offering the winner of this contest one free Phone Costume. This competition is open to anyone who is going to attend one of the Anti 02 Paddy Tax demonstrations and is known in the blogging community. The intention of which would be to give the media a good picture to go with the story.
So on to the competition. The below Costume has a space on the screen where you can print out and insert a slogan. The winner of the competition will be the best slogan as decided by other posters and myself. If you don’t want to get the costumes you can still submit your slogan and if you like nominate a winner / wearer.
Not sure how long we will run the competition for – i will let the organisers of the campaign suggest when they would like the costume for i suppose.
Ps. Please note this prize is being offered by me as an individual and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Costume Shop as a business.
One good thing about the property crash is that free-loaders who got rich with the skills and dedication of a piece of wood floating down the river are gonna get a wake up call. Not saying all estate agents are bad, i’ve met a few good ones, but several really bad ones. So here’s some advice for estate agents:
*If you can’t fit a bed in it, don’t call it a bed room, your not fooling anyone.
*If someone tells you what there looking for don’t just show them what you’d like to sell unless it matches their needs. It wastes both your time and mine.
*Visit the properties yourself before you bring a client there. Its so off putting when the person showing you around has no idea of whats in the house and can’t tell you a single feature with it being blatently obvious. “Lets see whats behind this door, oh this must be the master bed room. And this is the ensuite… oh no wait its a walk in closet”.
*If someones in the market for renting do not utter these words (yes this really happened!) “Don’t suppose you’d wanna buy one of these houses im selling them too.”
*Dont cancel meetings within minutes before your due to meet up saying the property was rented earlier. Cause you should have let the person know before they left to go view it. Find an alternative, even if its a colaboration with anyother estate agent or firm.
*Know what unoccupancy cost rate is and value it, have the ratios worked out in advance. There’s more to a deal than price and price negotiation has many varieties.
*Never reject an offer outright, always counter offer – even if the counter offer doesnt budge on price – counter with some small value add. Discount on Wireless with an agreed supplier; discount on SKY (everyone can get 75 quid for a refferal); discount on the local gym joining fee; restaurant voucher; the list goes on and on and on. Reason for this is an intelligent person in a market with excess supply will never offer asking price, but if you reject out right its human nature not to say ok then if you wont negotiate then i’ll give in.
