Having spent a large part of the day doing some programming, I was amused to get back to the site and find an interesting visitor: “http://portal.umbriacom.com/portal/urlClassification“. Turns out the link goes to a closed site (I got a session time out page). Being an inquiring mind I did the obvious: I went to http://www.umbriacom.com … which then forwarded me to this link. “Analyzing online opinions and perceptions“. I guess my comments on Burger King’s lame marketing efforts got more than BusinessWeek’s attention.
Imagine that. A marketing firm watching me while I watch them. Well, take this back with you, Umbria: Instead of your clients trying to be inventive with the marketing and advertising, how about someone telling them to improve their product first? See, all this internet connectivity and MySpace-Friendster-Buzz Oven sharing stuff is a BIG double-edged sword. So if the product isn’t as good as it should be, the negative reactions are going to fly just as fast if not faster, and sales will sink so much worse than they used to in the pre-Internet Age (think Tylenol circa 1982). Heads will spin before they roll. Be prepared.
{Moved here for Redoubt}
I found the same reference and until reading the above listed article, had no idea why I had received their attention. But a few days ago, I posted a rather unpleasant account of a recent visit to a local KFC ( http://sincityq.com/blog/?p=326 ) so assuming your theory is correct, it does make sense now.
Thanks.
Posted Feb 9, 2006 9:54 AM
I’ve gotten a couple of additional hits from these guys in the last week alone. There’s most definitely a “Big Brother” feel to this. And the prying eyes of Googlealert aren’t comforting either.
Time to ensure lots of “in my opinion”, “apparently”, “believe”, “assume”, and other qualifying words get stuck into our posts to keep the legal beagles at bay.