Clever marketing or downright deceitful? Chris Cardell Newspaper Junk Mail

This marketing tactic has given me some food for thought.....

I received a letter in the post yesterday. Inside the envelope was seemingly a newspaper clipping with a yellow sticky note attached. The envelope and the sticky note appeared to be hand written. The note read, "Karen, I saw this and thought of you. This guy is brilliant. Have a look at his website. J".



Hmm, mysterious. I briefly scanned the newspaper article which spanned two pages. Some guy Chris Cardell was making people millionaires. Quite a promise!

And who was J? I couldn't think of anyone I knew whose name began with J and that knew my home address and that would post me something like this.





Curiouser and curiouser.....

Basically the 'newspaper article' is full of fluff about Chris Cardell and how awesome he is with some testimonials from customers and links to his websites scattered throughout.

I hopped onto Google and searched for Chris Cardell.

So, it seems Chris is running a scam. There are obviously some people that are not happy about something he is up to. It also appears that Chris is one of the UK's leading experts on business marketing.



But my point about this is: Is what Chris is doing with his marketing scheme very clever, or downright deceitful?

In a way I think it is a little bit clever. It made me stop and think, I gave thought to who could have sent this to me, scanned the newspaper article and googled him. I've spent time on Chris, doing a tiny bit of research and now I am writing about him. He got my attention and now I know his name.

However, there is something that is not sitting right with me about this. I feel I've been tricked into seeing what this was all about. I was briefly under the illusion that someone I knew sent this to me. The paper clipping is not from a legitimate paper, it's just made to look that way. The 'newspaper' article gives the appearance of being written by a journalist. Complaints have been made to the Advertising Standards Authority and some of them have been upheld.

Chris's marketing has succeeded in getting people to know about his, yet it has backfired on him at the same time. It has certainly turned me off wanting to know any more about him, his business or his claims.

So, what could Chris have done?

• Been open and honest. Introduced himself and his business in a clear and up front way.
• Told me why he was contacting me
• Told me what his product was and how it could help me

I don't, and I'm sure you don't either, have the time or inclination to run about figuring out what a piece of marketing material is about or who it is from, and I certainly don't want to read about a lot of disgruntled customers. Business spend £1000's on clever marketing that does all of the above, but I highly recommend Chris Cardell comes up with something else and fast, before he turns more potential customers off!

Have you ever felt duped by a marketing ploy?

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