I read a disturbing report in today's newspaper about a new marketing trend in the U.S.
Hundreds of thousands of ordinary consumers are being recruited for word of mouth marketing - some call it guerilla and stealth marketing.
As a reward for recommending certain products they receive free samples or take part in draws for prizes.
So, caveat emptor and try before you buy!
That said, there are several regular contributors to this forum, from whose knowledge we can all learn and profit.
BTW, I will be visiting Photokina next month and shall try and give a report on the birding optics on show. I trust everyone will take the impressions with a grain of salt ;-) !
John
You mean spam? We get spammers on all message boards. They come and leave 1 message plugging some movie or product. Easy to spot. Is that what they were referring to?
[QUOTE=Tero]You mean spam? We get spammers on all message boards. They come and leave 1 message plugging some movie or product. Easy to spot. Is that what they were referring to?[/QUOTE]
Sadly that's at the amateur end of the scale. As you say, easy to spot, and easy to ignore.
At the other end of the scale are very professional set-ups where people are assuming long term personas in key online locations ie Birdforum. That way they can build credibility as members and apply their 'recommendations' much more discreetly.
The ethical way for manufacturers to engage with customers via forums is openly and honestly - the chap from Paramo who recently signed up has got it spot on, and I think there's another member who works for Minox.
There's one or two postings I can think of over the last year or so that have made me raise an eyebrow in mild scepticism, but if they're good enough at this, we'll never be able to prove anything.
Let 'try before you buy' be our mantra for evermore (and therefore, 'support your specialist retailer' - and no, I don't work for one!)