Marketing

Land’s End Advertising Dollars Going To The Recycling Center

Ho-Ho-Ho! It’s getting to be Christmas time and the high season for catalog shopping is on.

No one seems to know this better than Land’s End. For the second year in a row my mailbox has been stuffed with barrages of Land’s End catalogs featuring Men’s wear, Women’s wear and kidswear. By prank or by computer mishap, the catalogs don’t stop coming in names of people that I’ve never heard of, and apparently the only way to discontinue the mailings is with a C code that’s on the back of every catalog.

Last year around this time I spent approximately a half an hour on the phone with a customer service representative reading off numerous C codes in order to remove them from their mailing list. There must have been more names because this year the catalogs are back.

I called the 800 number again this morning to have two more names removed and requested that no more catalogs be sent to my home. The customer service rep told me that there was no way to remove the mailings
by address and suggested that I call them back when I get more catalogs to have them removed. Not exactly the most user friendly way of doing business.

Knowing a little about databases, it seems hard to believe that a techie whiz at Land’s End isn’t able to delete entries by an address field.

In today’s cash strapped world, I wonder why any company – big or small – wants to waste money on advertising that won’t ever earn a return?

Sadly, the only destination for Land’s End advertising dollars is going to be the local recycling center, where it will at least do a bit of good..

GoDaddy.com Superbowl Commercial

I’ve never quite been able to figure out exactly how GoDaddy.com ties into the Superbowl, but somehow this domain registration company is able to pull off a spot.

Here’s this year’s GoDaddy Superbowl commercial:

Enjoy!

AOL Is Still Losing

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that internet access is no longer the trusted dial in connection that once reigned supreme.

This method of connecting to the internet has been losing it’s popularity as high speed methods like cable, DSL and even fiber optics have replaced it and what was the once largest ISP, AOL tried to deal with lost subscribers by cranking up their advertiser revenues.

AOL reinstated their free Email program in an effort to lure people back to using their services, but even that wasn’t enough to stop the declining membership rolls. They reported 10.9 million paying dial-up customers as of June 30, 2007, down from a high of 26.7 million paying subscribers in September 2002.

AOL currently accounts for 11% of their parent company, Time Warner’s revenues.

What are your thoughts on AOL? Were all of those free installation CD’s worth it?

eHarmony To Implement Voice Over IP For Love Connections

It’s funny how online dating is coming back full circle. Online matchmaking company eHarmony recently announced that they were implementing VoIP (Voice Over IP) to help people make love connections.

The new service will protect users by not disclosing any personal information such as their home or business address or personal phone numbers of the subscriber.

“Online services have brought a new way for people to meet, but the structure of how two people come together hasn’t changed since the beginning of time,” says Greg Waldorf, CEO of eHarmony. “People want to take gradual steps toward an ultimate relationship. The connection starts online, and it leads to a phone call.”

The new service is expected to cost around $6.00 monthly for unlimited phone calls.

What do you think of this move by eHarmony? Do you think it will be a winner for daters online?