I’m starting to get pissed…
I’m not a business guru and I am certainly not an expert on marketing. But I did minor in Marketing back at Ball State University and I would like to think that I did learn at least a little from the many Marketing/Advertising classes that I completed. It helped me to become aware of the tactics that advertisers will use to target people for promoting their products. It helped me to understanding that there are several important issues to carefully consider when marketing your product….because the last thing you want to do is piss off your target audience. Well, I’m getting pissed.
Maybe I should have pursued a career in marketing, because even I know not to do some of the things that these nimrods like Speedway and Rhapsody are doing.
There are two examples that are just flat-out misleading. I think the average person would agree with me on these things.
Let’s start with Speedway….you know, the gas stations. Look, people are already pissed off about the gas situation. It’s getting freaking ridiculous, folks! So what does Speedway do? Well, they have a rewards program, the Speedy Rewards Card. Yeah go ahead and click the link and check it out. Now, up until recently I have been pleased with the rewards program. It’s been a good thing for me. But last week, I’m driving past a Speedway, and notice the large sign on the marquee stating that August was “Double Points month!”….Note that this was on a marquee, and you ain’t gonna find no damn small print on a marquee, right? Right! I did not buy gas that day….but I noticed it, and I decided that I would make even more effort to purchase gas at Speedway for the entire month of August….even if it meant going out of my way a little.
So the next opportunity, I did…..as I was pumping the gas, I noticed several other signs declaring “DOUBLE POINTS on your Speedway card in August!” I finish pumping and as I am pulling away I take a look at the receipt to see just how many points I had earned since I just spent over 40 bucks on their gas. The points earned was NOT DOUBLED! I grumbled something about it to my wife, who gets tired of me being a cheap ass, and I just tried to leave it at that and forget about it. But then yesterday, I get more gas at a different Speedway location – Same damn thing – NO DOUBLE POINTS…..And then it hit me…..I got suckered…..Double points are only for certain items like dried up hot dogs and gross breakfast sandwiches…I don’t know about you, but I am not eager to eat an egg product prepared at a gas station. So SPEEDWAY is on my defecation list.
Then there is Rhapsody….. you know, the music download service. After I got my Sandisk Sansa mp3 player last month (which I enjoy) I accepted the invitation that came with it….a one month free subscription to Rhapsody To Go. This was, after all, a $15 value….The card that promoted the service states (and this is verbatim, folks) “Rhapsody To Go gives you unlimited access to our entire catalogue of over a million songs and lets you take it with you on your Sandisk Sansa for no extra charge”. Let me repeat for those that did not see those last three words: “NO EXTRA CHARGE”. I’m thinking, geez, I’ll load up on songs for the month and then cancel before it has been a full month. Hell, all I have to do is dial 1-866-420-5833 to cancel anytime. This is a no brainer…duh….free month of Rhapsody service….NO EXTRA CHARGE…unlimited downloads…these are the actual words used…..I should have known it was a crock of feces. Turns out there are Additional charges for each and every song downloaded – to the tune of 88 cents each. Now I figured this out just in time before loading my mps player up with a hundred songs – but I could have easily downloaded them with no worry because, as advertised it was a free month of service with unlimited downloads with no extra charge. By the way, I checked out the fine print on the card and it only refer to details about the one-month trial period – nothing about the fact that you still have to pay for downloads…..It’s just stupid….I mean what is the point of having Rhapsody and paying the 15 bucks a month for it? Geez, you can go the Wal-Mart.com and get whatever you want without having to have a subscription!
I’m not a business guru and I am certainly not an expert on marketing. But I did minor in Marketing back at Ball State University and I would like to think that I did learn at least a little from the many Marketing/Advertising classes that I completed. It helped me to become aware of the tactics that advertisers will use to target people for promoting their products. It helped me to understanding that there are several important issues to carefully consider when marketing your product….because the last thing you want to do is piss off your target audience. Well, I’m getting pissed.
Maybe I should have pursued a career in marketing, because even I know not to do some of the things that these nimrods like Speedway and Rhapsody are doing.
There are two examples that are just flat-out misleading. I think the average person would agree with me on these things.
Let’s start with Speedway….you know, the gas stations. Look, people are already pissed off about the gas situation. It’s getting freaking ridiculous, folks! So what does Speedway do? Well, they have a rewards program, the Speedy Rewards Card. Yeah go ahead and click the link and check it out. Now, up until recently I have been pleased with the rewards program. It’s been a good thing for me. But last week, I’m driving past a Speedway, and notice the large sign on the marquee stating that August was “Double Points month!”….Note that this was on a marquee, and you ain’t gonna find no damn small print on a marquee, right? Right! I did not buy gas that day….but I noticed it, and I decided that I would make even more effort to purchase gas at Speedway for the entire month of August….even if it meant going out of my way a little.
So the next opportunity, I did…..as I was pumping the gas, I noticed several other signs declaring “DOUBLE POINTS on your Speedway card in August!” I finish pumping and as I am pulling away I take a look at the receipt to see just how many points I had earned since I just spent over 40 bucks on their gas. The points earned was NOT DOUBLED! I grumbled something about it to my wife, who gets tired of me being a cheap ass, and I just tried to leave it at that and forget about it. But then yesterday, I get more gas at a different Speedway location – Same damn thing – NO DOUBLE POINTS…..And then it hit me…..I got suckered…..Double points are only for certain items like dried up hot dogs and gross breakfast sandwiches…I don’t know about you, but I am not eager to eat an egg product prepared at a gas station. So SPEEDWAY is on my defecation list.
Then there is Rhapsody….. you know, the music download service. After I got my Sandisk Sansa mp3 player last month (which I enjoy) I accepted the invitation that came with it….a one month free subscription to Rhapsody To Go. This was, after all, a $15 value….The card that promoted the service states (and this is verbatim, folks) “Rhapsody To Go gives you unlimited access to our entire catalogue of over a million songs and lets you take it with you on your Sandisk Sansa for no extra charge”. Let me repeat for those that did not see those last three words: “NO EXTRA CHARGE”. I’m thinking, geez, I’ll load up on songs for the month and then cancel before it has been a full month. Hell, all I have to do is dial 1-866-420-5833 to cancel anytime. This is a no brainer…duh….free month of Rhapsody service….NO EXTRA CHARGE…unlimited downloads…these are the actual words used…..I should have known it was a crock of feces. Turns out there are Additional charges for each and every song downloaded – to the tune of 88 cents each. Now I figured this out just in time before loading my mps player up with a hundred songs – but I could have easily downloaded them with no worry because, as advertised it was a free month of service with unlimited downloads with no extra charge. By the way, I checked out the fine print on the card and it only refer to details about the one-month trial period – nothing about the fact that you still have to pay for downloads…..It’s just stupid….I mean what is the point of having Rhapsody and paying the 15 bucks a month for it? Geez, you can go the Wal-Mart.com and get whatever you want without having to have a subscription!
Nuff said……okay, tell me what you think? Am I being a little unreasonable here?
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