Marketing Missteps

Two quick stories -- one is sad, the other quite funny. One truthful. One an outright lie.

First, the sad. This one comes from a local radio advertisement that I recently heard for the first time (here in Charleston, West Virginia). The advertiser is a local furniture merchant. The owner has been the voice of this brand for many, many years. In this particular spot, he's urging us to replace our old worn-out mattresses with this new brand--higher quality, more affordable and available at his store (naturally). His hook is that we can save money on this brand of mattress because "the manufacturer does not spend money on mass marketing." Oh really?!!!

Pardon me, but what the heck do you call radio advertising?Is it not a form of mass marketing? Come on, Mister Furniture Huckster -stop lying to us. I mean they actually put this on the air!

Now for the funny one. This report comes to us from Maple alumna, Marie. She and her coworker were recently placing an order for office supplies from one of the national chains. When placed on hold for a few moments, they were treated to the sweet sounds of Carly Simon singing, "Anticipation." As many of you know, the chorus goes: "It's keeping me way-ay-ay-ay-ay-i-ting." How ironic! That just cracks me up. As Marie notes, "That just struck me as hilariously wrong marketing."

Marie, I agree. But at least they were telling the truth.