This is a new low in my terms and shows how bad some marketing has become.  Below in italics is an email I received today promoting the BlogHer Conference upcoming in New York.  Do I care about having the Medical Quack in Lights on Times Square, hardly.  I hope the information and opinions attract readers with content first of all.  It’s been a while since I looked at the BlogHer site and it’s not what it used to be.  It’s there to sell, sell and sell.  I looked through the book section and there are some of the same solicitations I get on some of these books with PR companies with all the book writers out there today.  Let’s face it the world of “writing books from so called experts” is done.  We have too many experts out there who in fact are just in it to sell a book.

Don’t get me wrong in the fact that I do like a “good book” for sure but I see book after book addressing the same thing,image over and over and over.  If Walgreens wanted to promote their products, why in the world do they not advertise directly with bloggers instead of this nonsense, and nonsense it is.  I could care less if I ever made the BlogHer list after having reviewed what I saw today.  It’s costs money to go to the conference as well and what am I going to get out of it, not much in my opinion. This marketing effort was directed at me to go to the Perrigo booth so they could pass along some products to me…says so right in the email body so I can stock my medicine cabinet.  All they want me to do to enter the contest is “get my social networks fired up” and frankly the content I put out here has no relativity. 

If I need a product I go to the store and buy it and I don’t care if it happens to be the in house brand of CVS either, it’s the store I happen to be in.   This type of promotion reminds me too of the ugly tweets you see on Twitter, like “oh I just need 40 more followers to hit 50”…who cares and I think people have tuned out on those anyway but they are still out there.  BlogHer would do well to look at what they are putting out there and again this is my opinion here as far as being a blogger trying to include some quality material rather than books of poems, nifty foods and hundreds of diet books. 

Again there’s nothing here of interest for me and the name in lights for a contest for the “best voted blogger’ is just about as valuable as all those hospital and doctor compare sites that are riddled with flawed data and gosh knows how many more “data for sale” lists I would end up on.  Here’s a classic post that will give you an idea of how accurate the data is that you read out there today. 

HealthGrades And Other MD Rating and Referral Sites List “Dead Doctors” on Their MD Information Pages And Even Include the Insurance Plans the “Dead Doctors” Honor


In essence I would more than likely be contributing to the “data for sale” bunch here as a lot of that goes on and I’m not in the mood for more consumer “algo duping” to be sold something I probably don’t need. If you have read my posts before then you are aware of the fact that Walgreens made short of $800 million in 2010, just selling data only, so again attending some of these conferences puts me and my information in the old “data corral” for companies  to:

                            “get the data for nothing and profits for free”

Big Data, Flawed Data, Business Intelligence, Where’s The Future and What Has Been Our Past…A World With ”Algo Duping” of Society and Consumers


Again, Walgreens and CVS would do much better to seek out quality blogs and advertise directly to help keep quality blogging alive instead of this mess.  What a crock of spun marketing and shoot the drug chains could save money that way without the expensive middle folks in here as well.  The poor marketing person who sent me this solicitation probably has no clue as well so not picking one person here by any means at they just pull a list and market, and market and market, as that’s the job description given to them.  Back on the topics of books, here’s a good one that I enjoyed and you may be a little less naïve after reading it as well.  Find out how formulas for spun marketing work and recognize them in full operation every day around you.  Once you know what to look for it’s not that hard. 

“Proofiness–The Dark Side of Mathematical Deception”–Created by Those Algorithms

I’m sure I made no friends here today with this post with PR firms, but gosh get a grip and put some valuable information out there and cut the garbage and I’m sure other bloggers feel the same as I see their comments in Twitter as well.  So the Medical Quack will continue on doing what I have been doing and hopefully providing some interesting and maybe valuable information “about the business of healthcare”.  And for all of the drug chains and other folks who would like to advertise on the Medical Quack you can do so but please leave me out of these insane contest solicitations as they do nothing in my opinion of creating good quality information.  BD




“Are you planning to go to BlogHer ‘12? If so, we hope to see you there and invite you to stop by Perrigo’s booth at the expo to pick imageup some free Walgreens brand medications from our BlogHer booth “drugstore”. Perrigo Company (www.perrigo.com) is the world's largest manufacturer of over-the-counter pharmaceutical products for the store brand market and manufacturers for the nation’s leading retailers.

We would love to pass along some of our products to help stock your medicine cabinet when you get home! 

Also, make sure you enter our contest to give one lucky blogger a spot on the Walgreens Billboard in the heart of Times Square.  It is easy to enter! All you have to do is get your social networks fired up about the contest and vote for your blog. The payoff? Your face and blog address will be on the jumbo screen in the “Crossroads of the World” for millions (literally) to see. Talk about advertising for your blog!  Get more details at www.winthewalgreensbillboard.com and help us spread the word.”

0 comments :

Post a Comment

 
Top
Google Analytics Alternative