marketing

Stocking stuffers

Posted on by backuphill

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Honestly, if you do stockings for Christmas, either for a spouse or children/grandchildren, how much do you spend? Do you have a budget for your stocking stuffing?

The things I am seeing advertised as “stocking stuffers” is kind of ridiculous, if you ask me.

Who buys a car for someone and drops the keys in a stocking?

Who buys a refrigerator at a stocking stuffer? (never mind the other implications of buying an appliance as a gift…)

Who spends hundreds of dollars to fill a stocking?

I know companies gotta sell their wares, but seriously do the people that write these commercials or the marketing department even consider that most people are working on a budget and can’t afford the lavish gifts they are pushing as stocking stuffers, let alone as a gift during the holidays.

People in the real world gotta work within a budget and I don’t think my budget has ever been above $50 per person ($60-70 if you include all the stocking stuff). That happened to be a pretty generous year as I ain’t made of money and isn’t typical at all.

Besides, Christmas isn’t about gifts anyway…well, at least it shouldn’t be ya dang heathens…

Spring cleaning

Posted on by backuphill

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I started going through the list of “followers” a couple of days ago. The number of “people” following this blog is astonishingly filled with a huge number of abandoned or completely inauthentic accounts. There are so many fake accounts, bot accounts, or inactive accounts. As such, I have started deleting them. I am watching the number of “followers” dwindle and its a little disheartening.

Truth be told, I didn’t start this place to vent so I would gain a huge following and suddenly become the next internet sensation. It truly was a place to vent about anything and everything. If it struck a cord with people or caused them to be interested in what the next topic might be or identified with what I was saying, great. I welcome any and (almost) all interaction.

But, it the disheartening part is that the actual number of people who might really be paying attention is kinda small. I still have a lot of cleaning up to do and so those number of “followers” will surely shrink.

I guess one of the questions we really have to ask of other bloggers is what that number of “followers” they claim to have actually is. I see accounts all the time with a large number of followers but I now wonder how many of those numbers are actual people and not just fake accounts.

Do other bloggers pay any attention to this or are the numbers simply just a number to brag about, to market their blog to others based on inflated data? Does it really matter to a company if the numbers a blogger (or other social media influencer) has are authentic or are they just simply looking for people with a large “audience”?

Questions I don’t really care to know the answer to, I guess. I suppose I am just talking out loud here. But it makes me wonder…

Shopping sales

Posted on by backuphill

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

It seems Black Friday started at the beginning of October this year. I guess we are living, supposedly, in perpetual “Black Friday prices” land for the foreseeable future. Today is Cyber Monday and best I can tell they are just the Black Friday prices recycled. Anyone else feel that’s the way it’s been for the last several years?

Yes, I am paying attention to the sales, though I haven’t yet left the house to go to any…because, why? Why leave home for a sale when you can get the same thing online? “It’s for the experience.” LOL Been there and done that in my younger years. Wasn’t worth it. No one needs that experience. Besides, there isn’t anything that I want that bad.

Oops, did you catch that in the last sentence?

“…anything that I WANT that bad.”

Hence, the problem with shopping the sales this time of year. Anyone else have a hard time not shopping for themselves?

As I look through the various sales, I inevitably find things that I want – either have been looking at in the past and was waiting for a sale or it’s something completely random and I just WANT it.

I typically resist this urge, but at times it is difficult. This time of year sucks because the budget can only handle so much (even with planning) and then all of the sudden I find myself thinking, “It’s on sale? Sweet, just what I have been waiting for!” Half of my browsing is seeing things I want to buy or would buy if I was Christmas shopping.

Anyone else’s shopping dominated by thoughts about just buying stuff for yourself?

It’s a problem and I don’t like it. Not because I don’t have the money, but because my discipline is seriously eroding with each passing moment.

Wait times…

Posted on by backuphill

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“Wait times maybe be longer than usual due to higher than anticipated call volumes.”

We’re all familiar with that little phrase, right? We have all be stuck on hold with companies that play this over and over while you sit and wait for someone that isn’t a robot recording to pick up the actual phone and talk to you. In times of an emergency or in times when your system isn’t working as designed, I can see a legitimate reason for getting this message.

What is irritating is that you don’t have the ability to answer a high call volume should it happen or you have purposely caused your system to be overloaded because you caused it to be by your actions.

Case in point:

You send an email to all your subscribers with an offer to add something to their account for free for a limited time.

BUT, in order to take advantage of this offer you have to have your customers actually call you, thus clogging up your phone system.

NOT, make it available to be done on your website with a special code to make the discount apply when it would normally be done there in the first place.

Yeah, that’s good marketing!

Who came up with this idea? Why would you require an action be done over the phone when said action could be done on the website you have for doing said action? Makes no sense.

Irritating and takes advantage of your customer’s time.

Marketing mayhem

Posted on by backuphill

red and white ribbon

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Anyone else already tired of today?

Anyone else think this day, Valentine’s Day, is dumb?

The stores love it because it is just a marketing bonanza filled with stupid little gifts. Money, money, money! The cash registers ring non-stop.

Ever notice that the price for things that are normally reasonable suddenly go way up? Case in point, flowers. A dozen roses at Safeway any other time of the year is $14.99. The days surrounding Valentine’s Day…$45.99. Seems like a scam to me! Hopefully you ordered yours early or you may be outta luck, or pay through the nose as the price probably went up.

Sappy cards @ $5.99 a pop. Little trinkets and stuffed animals @ $7.99. Chocolate, of course varies on size and quality, is priced like there is going to be a shortage in the near future. I mean, really, nothing says “I love you” like a box of chocolates. I love you so much, why don’t you add a few pounds.

Don’t even think about reservations at the last minute! Prepare to drop a fortune if you are going to a special restaurant. You might as well just hit up the McDonalds drive-thru and go home to sit on the couch.

Alright. I am sure you get it. I’ll stop.

Today is stupid.

Got a Valentine’s Day horror story? Do you agree with me? Tell me in the comments!