X-Message-Number: 15103
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 11:07:03 -0800
From: Kennita Watson <>
Subject: computer company obtuseness
References: <>

> As one small anecdote about the occasional obtuseness of some computer
> people: AOL used to send me free disks, sometimes every week, with their
> latest version of their service--even though I WAS ALREADY A CUSTOMER WITH
> THE LATEST VERSION. You would think a computer firm, of all people, ought to
> know when someone already has what the company is wasting money trying to
> sell. I guess AOL finally figured that out, since I don't get those disks any
> more.
> 
LOL!  That's like saying "The rain god must have heard my pleas for dry 
weather, because it stopped raining.".  I doubt AOL *ever* sent _you_
a free disk.  Everyone in your ZIP code, maybe.  I'm guessing that AOL
doesn't send anyone anything -- that mass mailing firms do it, and the
disks are cheap enough that their cost would be swamped by the cost of 
filtering the lists those firms send to (assuming they even want to;
until the market is saturated to a certain point, you may give the 
disk to someone who wants one and wasn't on the list).

I don't think many people, if any, are getting those disks in the mail
(or in magazines, or with the newspaper) anymore; certainly I don't.  
Now many new computers come with the software, and you can sign up for 
the service online, so the ROI has probably tipped away from mass-mailed 
CDs -- remember when it used to be floppies?  

At a more general level:  Cut business some slack, and be willing to
learn from it.  Marketeers, especially with successful companies, 
aren't stupid; assume that even if you are annoyed by an ad, producing 
and distributing it isn't a waste of money for the firm.  We'll market 
cryonics much differently when we're growing its clientele from tens 
of millions to hundreds of millions, rather than from a few hundred to
a few thousand individuals.

Live long and prosper,
Kennita
--
Kennita Watson          |  I vote Libertarian.
     |      Find out why.
http://www.kennita.com  |           http://www.lp.org/intro

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