This Is A Blog About Marketing
& Whatever Else That Strikes Me

Saturday, August 01, 2009

When "Free" Means "Watch out! They Are Going to Scam You"


I spent Tuesday through Thursday at my internship doing what I enjoy doing. The other two days, I call people I don't know to tell them about receiving free stuff. Yes, I am one of those telemarketers that no one wants to talk to...a slightly difference between me and a traditional telemarketer is that I am not selling any product or service, and you probably will not receive phone calls from me unless you own a Nail Salon in California, Chicago, Atlanta or Philadelphia areas. I convince nail salon owners to allow my company to advertise in their salons using our digital network (the company gets paid from companies advertising on these networks). Everything comes at no charge, all we need is for them to agree for us to play our programs in their nail salons. They even receive many cool free products from our partners (like makeup or chocolate, etc).

The job is simple...except people just...don't like free stuff. I am telling you. You will be surprised to hear all the reasons people give me for not wanting to receive free things. It's like the word "Free" has become the new sign for "watch out, they are up to no good" or something. Though I can understand why, I have run into many places/services with free things and a catch. Like if admission is free, the drink will probably cost you a fortune. Or if you want a free sandwich, you need to apply for Capital One credit card and such....

Then I thought about how many "free"s are still being used in a ppc or seo ads. (Haha, back to PPC again)...Free is so overrated these days that I wonder how many people actually type in "free" instead of going to free-stuff website like www.freecycles.org....

My roommate actually stops me from rambling on and on. We are heading out for a friend's birthday party tonight. Don't worry, I know I am obsessed with search news but I promise that's not the only thing I ever talk about.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.