Category Archives: Stupid Marketing
Apple’s Greed not Dead in Trademark Dispute
The Telegraph posted an article yesterday about how “Apple takes on German café over logo”. A small café in Germany called Apfelkind (child of apple) has a red apple shaped logo with the silhouette of a child inside of it (go to link to see picture). It looks next to nothing like the Apple computer logo, but that hasn’t stopped them from pursuing a trademark “infringement” complaint against the café.
IOW, it is another example of stupid marketing and stupid legal maneuvers gone haywire.
One of the comments on The Telegraph’s site mentions that it doesn’t have to be confusing in order to be a trademark case. Balderdash! Almost all trademarks center around whether or not the consumer is confused. Not only are the logos very distinguishable, but I really doubt anyone is going to confuse a café with an Apple Store.
You know, my iPhone can be replaced in a few months. Perhaps I will look at other options?
Smoke and Mirrors Are not System Requirements
If you asked me how much memory was needed to run a program, how would you feel if I answered, “Enough memory to run the operating system and any programs you want to use”? I’d imagine your answer would be along the lines of, “Well, duh.” Yet, amazingly, that is almost exactly the description for a program I was trying to spec out.
I won’t name the program, but this is pretty frustrating. Does it use 1MB of memory? 1TB? Who knows? If you ask me, they are asking for tech support calls.
Let’s look at some other requirements they list to see how they stack up:
Stupid Marketing Tricks: Legitimate Company Spams Potential Customers
I received some spam this morning. No news there, right? Actually, in this case it is. You see, it’s not for Viagra, the latest sex toys, and not even from Nigeria. In fact, as far as I can tell, it’s from a real company called LL Bean. Maybe you’ve heard of it.
This is another case of a company that has lost its mind. When legitimate companies start using illegitimate tactics to lure in customers, they are no longer legitimate companies in my book.
I posted the headers below for the ever so curious.
Here is the message, stripped of links and pictures (doesn’t leave much):
From: L.L.Bean <LLBean@e.llbean.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 16 November, 2010 8:20
To: [removed so I don't get yet more spam]
Subject: Your Invitation to Exclusive Offers and Discounts + $10 OffL.L.Bean: Become an L.L.Bean email subscriber to receive special offers and discounts exclusively through email.
Trouble viewing? View this email in a browser or on a mobile device.… [Various captions removed]…
*To qualify for a $10 coupon valid on purchase of $50 or more, you must agree to receive promotional email updates by clicking
through this email and providing your preferred email address on llbean.com on or before November 23, 2010 11:59PM EST.
Coupons will be sent via email to new subscribers on November 25 and will be valid through December 2, 2010.
**By signing up for L.L.Bean email, you will receive 1-2 emails per week. You may change your frequency or unsubscribe at any
time. We will not share your email address with third parties.
L.L.Bean Inc.
Dept. CFM
15 Casco Street
Freeport, Maine 04033
USA
1-888-610-2326
You’ve got to be kidding, right?
Now, I don’t claim to be a regular shopper of theirs, and I can guarantee I’ve never shopped from them using that particular email address. However, from now on, I guess I’ll be buying various wedding gifts and the like from somewhere else.
As promised, here are the headers:
X-Antivirus: AVG for E-mail
Delivered-To: [removed]
Received: by 10.227.7.132 with SMTP id d4cs243170wbd;
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:19:36 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.100.17.4 with SMTP id 4mr5163505anq.119.1289913575152;
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:19:35 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <bo-bxpdfujawrzq79au9j0fvc319gh84c@b.e.llbean.com>
Received: from mta130.e.llbean.com (mta130.e.llbean.com [66.165.105.241])
by mx.google.com with SMTP id a1si11210520ana.158.2010.11.16.05.19.33;
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:19:34 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of bo-bxpdfujawrzq79au9j0fvc319gh84c@b.e.llbean.com designates 66.165.105.241 as permitted sender) client-ip=66.165.105.241;
DomainKey-Status: good (test mode)
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of bo-bxpdfujawrzq79au9j0fvc319gh84c@b.e.llbean.com designates 66.165.105.241 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=bo-bxpdfujawrzq79au9j0fvc319gh84c@b.e.llbean.com; domainkeys=pass (test mode) header.From=LLBean@e.llbean.com
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
s=200505; d=e.llbean.com;
b=h5n4WbbLwUwRyyJ5NQSfJ+mf+8oPDj39BeWqrh633DxiHZNTytBs86DjEWWXHneQ/wSk5fnlIibAoDPhkVNd0LTCxXvg9XTyNraN65nUxpOBdbmsU+PL9+9zM5N72YpdXcHrqoS+W/5cV0OXCQd/16SmEijNp10eHIpzoY4EAM0=;
h=Date:Message-ID:List-Unsubscribe:From:To:Subject:MIME-Version:Reply-To:Content-type;
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:19:55 -0000
Message-ID: <bxpdfujawrzq79au9j0fvc319gh84c.3684304417.8144@mta130.e.llbean.com>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:rm-0bxpdfujawrzq79au9j0fvc319gh84c@e.llbean.com>
From: "L.L.Bean" <LLBean@e.llbean.com>
To: iammarchhare@gmail.com
Subject: Your Invitation to Exclusive Offers and Discounts + $10 Off
MIME-Version: 1.0
Reply-To: "L.L.Bean" <support-bxpdfujawrzq79au9j0fvc319gh84c@e.llbean.com>
Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="=bxpdfujawrzq79au9j0fvc319gh84c"
Sun News and Stupid Marketing
I’m boycotting Sun News Courier both as in deliver and in advertising.
You really have to wonder what goes through the minds of some companies. There are some that piss off their customers. Then, there are those who piss off their prospective customers. Sun News falls into the latter category.
I received a bill from Sun News not long ago. The trouble is that we cancelled our subscription at least 3 years ago. What they’re doing is fraudulent, and they should be investigated for trying to rip people off.
So, I called the number. “That’s not a bill,” the woman explained, “It’s an offer.”
“That’s not true,” I replied. “It says ‘amount due’ clearly on it.”
“Well, sir, you don’t…”
“No, I don’t want to hear it. It’s a bill. Send me another, and I’ll report you to the Better Business Bureau.”
[pause]
“OK,” she said, “Have a nice day.”
No apologies, no acknowledgment of wrong doing, just arrogance. What a way to attract customers!
Here is the “offer”:
Notice the “amount due” and “balance due”. In addition, I need to ensure my “continued” delivery, implying I am already a subscriber. In fact, I’m being thanked twice for my subscription!
Now, tell me, is this or is this not a bill?
Actually, it is fraud, and I’ll never advertise in such a sleazy publication.
