Pattern Finder

Excuse Us While We Sponge Off You

Well, I got one of those, "Excuse Us While We Sponge Off You" e-mails today.  It was from the Horn Group, a PR firm asking questions for one of its clients, Kalido, a data warehousing company.

Since these e-mails are written in PR speak, it always takes some time to figure out what they're really asking.  Some examples:

Please list the companies you see as key players in the MDM space.  Translation:  "We
don't really know who Kalido competes with, and are worried that we've missed someone.  If you tell us, we'll look like we know what we're doing in front of the client without actually having to do any work -- other than send this e-mail."

Do you think Kalido has a strong position in the MDM market and/or data warehousing market?  Translation:  "Are you going to write anything bad about our client in the next year?"

Any advice for Kalido or the MDM market for the future?  Translation:  "Although we charge our client for our services, we figure you'll give away your expertise for free.  So tell us the competitive threats Kalido should worry about, the market trends you've seen over the past three months, and how Kalido should position itself to gain greater mind and market share.  That way, once again, we'll look like we know what we're doing in front of the client with minimal work on our part."

The e-mail ends, "We look forward to connecting with you again in the future."  Oh, swell.  I can hardly wait.

K-Mart's IQ (Internet Quotient) Is Dropping

A number of days ago, K-Mart laid off Bill Bass, along with several other Sears managers.  Bill was responsible for the online presence of Sears and Lands' End.  When Sears took over Lands' End, it was smart enough to leave Bill where he was; K-Mart apparently isn't that bright.

I talked to Bill a number of years ago, and I was struck with how Internet savvy he was, back in the days when you could count such people on one hand.  Lands' End had to code a lot of its Web site on its own, because commercial software couldn't yet do what the company wanted.  However, when commercial software finally caught up, Bill had the smarts to yank out the homegrown stuff, replace it with supported software, and invent something new.

E-commerce companies, Web analytics vendors, IT analyst firms -- if K-Mart is stupid enough to let Bill go, see if you can get him on your team.  Visionaries like him don't grow on trees.

Do You Have a Privacy Page?

I actually had someone read the Privacy page on my Web site yesterday.  He e-mailed me, asking to be removed from any databases I kept.  We actually had a nice back-and-forth conversation, where I explained that Statcounter (the Web analytics package I use), while it had put a cookie on his PC, couldn't personally identify him.  I then explained, if he was still concerned, that he could delete any cookies from Statcounter.com and then block them in the future.

I had put up the Privacy page in reaction to the California law last summer.  The law specifically requires commercial sites to put up a Privacy page, but I think it's a good practice for all sites.  First, thinking through what to put on the page and how you collect customer data is a worthwhile process on its own.  Second, some people are worried about privacy, and it's better to have a conversation with them about it rather than to completely ignore them.  For it's only if they trust the Internet will more and more people use it.