A cruel kind of marketing trickery

This is one of the most disingenuous, misleading company PR releases I have seen so far this year.

It promises something for free. But it's a million miles from free. It gives the impression that it is doing something to lift our community. And that is nowhere near the intention.

I've already seen positive chatter about this 'offer' on Twitter and elsewhere among people who didn't look at the small print (and in fairness to them, the company's website doesn't give any relevant small print).

[PR release begins]

Irish Technology Company, Adwalker, Announce Plans to Invest €2m to Help Businesses through the Current Recession

Adwalker to give its Gen:3 product to hundreds of Irish companies in order to help stimulate consumer activity across a range of sectors

Dublin, May 20th, 2009: Irish company Adwalker, one of the world’s leading providers of wearable computing  has revealed the next generation of its digital wearable  product named Gen:3.

To celebrate this milestone in the company’s development and in acknowledgement of the challenges that are currently being experienced by most businesses selling to the consumer sector at this time, Adwalker has decided to offer the first 2,000 units of its product to companies who can use it to help stimulate consumer demand and drive direct sales, free of charge. Adwalker anticipate the Irish market to take up to 400 units of the global 2,000 allocation.

Commenting on the decision to invest in the economy in this manner CEO, Simon Crisp said: "In times of recession businesses, ourselves included, need to use innovative means to drive sales... If we can help to encourage consumers to re-engage in the economy we can help to shorten the tenure of the downturn. We hope that by offering our patented product at no cost we will encourage people to use a proven tool for generating consumer demand."

While the first 2,000 units distributed will be available at no cost, there will be a small fee associated with activating the unit. This will be under €10 per day and there is no limit to the amount of days or hours that the system can be in use. The retail price of each free unit is expected to be around €5,000 in the future.

Adwalker is inviting customers interested in availing of this unique offer to visit www.adwalker.com to pre order their free units now.

[PR release ends]

From this release, you are left thinking:

1. Adwalker is giving away an amazing €5,000 device for free
2. It is doing this because it is a really decent company and it wants to give something back
3. There'll be a tiny, nominal charge of under €10 per day if you want to use it

Now here are the facts, after I contacted both the company itself and the PR firm involved.

1. To claim the free machine, you must pay Adwalker €3,650 (plus Vat) -- the '€10 per day' must be paid for a minimum contract of 365 days
2. That money doesn't even buy you the device: you only lease it for one year
3. If you want to keep it after the year is up, you must pay them another €3,650 (plus Vat)

Isn't this disingenuous?

I spoke to Simon Crisp, the company's chief executive, who I have a lot of respect for. I put it to him that this was disingenuous. He didn't agree, pointing out that it is a big, big discount on the usual rental price of an Adwalker device, which is €150 per day.

I think that every firm is giving discounts at the moment. I don't think that it's kosher to dress it up a discounted offer as something free, especially something offered as an act of civic solidarity.

Comments

[Emmet Ryan]

That does seem to stink quite a bit. Also hidden costs tend to cause far more resentment in the long-term from customers, which wouldn't be the case if they simply pitched it as a discount and put the percentage of the reduction in huge font (ugly but effective).

[Aaron]

It's a discount, but not free. They've tried to dress it up as free because discounts are commonplace. Tut tut.

If I'm ever that disingenuous, shoot me. I may be on the PR side of the fence, all told, but I've always believed that straight shooting wins you more in the end than the usual dance of making sure your release is laced with little phrases about how you're award winning, world beating, cat rescuing wunderkinds.

[Keith]

Also, after reading the press release twice I still have no idea what the Adwalker is.

[valtrex online]

Marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry in the past, which included advertising, distribution and selling. However, because the academic study of marketing makes extensive use of social sciences, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics, anthropology and neuroscience, the profession is now widely recognized as a science, allowing numerous universities to offer Master-of-Science (MSc) programmes. The overall process starts with marketing research and goes through market segmentation, business planning and execution, ending with pre and post-sales promotional activities. It is also related to many of the creative arts. The marketing literature is also adept at re-inventing itself and its vocabulary according to the times and the culture.