Desperate Marketing

 There are certain marketing techniques that just scream desperation. They move the retailer from “dignified and disappointed” to “creepy stalker.” It’s something that could happen to any retailer, us included, in tough economic times. When times get tough people start tossing around all sorts of ideas, searching for something - anything- to change their fortunes. Fortunately, I like to think we’ve avoided this so far, but I ran across one painful example of this yesterday.

Read on after the jump for the whole story…

So I visited a software reseller and after I closed the window, this little gem popped up:

Let me just run down all the things that I see as wrong with this:

1. It abandons all sense of dignity and professionalism. Just picture if you were at a brick and mortar store, and as you left the sales person chased you out into the parking lot begging for you to come back in.
2. It offers me a discount that wasn’t offered when I was shopping initially! This doesn’t make me excited - it ticks me off. I mean, I came to the store planning to spend money - this tells me that folks who are loyal to the company get suckered into paying full price and folks that could give a crap get special treatment. Call me crazy, but I see that as the opposite of how things should get run.
3. It’s a pop-up! EVERYONE hates pop-ups. What is worse, it’s a pop-up designed to bypass both Goggle and IE pop-up managers. When I left the retailer’s site its because I didn’t want to shop there any longer. Shoving a pop-up in my face is not the way to convince me to come back.
4. The body language portrayed in the image tells me one of two things: either this person who I don’t know is trying to grab me, or they are pushing me away. Both of these messages cause me to recoil from the ad.

Yep, it’s a sad state of affairs. Once proud software resellers are being reduced to the type of advertising gimmicks previously reserved for bottom of the line webcams, discount furniture stores, and adult sites.

Fortunately, things are going well enough for us that we haven’t even had to think this way, but if that day comes I hope we can approach the challenge with a bit more dignity that some sites.

eWallet for BlackBerry Update

I’m excited to announced that we just released a new version of eWallet for BlackBerry with our good friends over at WebIS. This latest release is a free upgrade for current eWallet for BlackBerry customers. It addresses a few minor bugs but also adds a number of great features.

UPDATE: This upgrade will change the version of both the eWallet sync add-in for Blackberry Desktop Manager, and the Blackberry version, to 6.1.4.3416. The desktop eWallet does not change - it will stay at 6.1.3.24746.

One of my favorite features is the updated UI with focus on the touch interface of the BlackBerry Storm. Here’s a screenshot showing a little of what this new version has to offer:

Other features include:

• A new Quick Search that makes it easy to find the info you’re looking for.
• Easier first time synching so that new users can get synching faster.
• Support for landscape mode.
• Improved scroll speeds, category behavior, and more.

If you are an existing BlackBerry user you definitely want this upgrade. We’ll be notifying all BlackBerry users soon and will provide you with download links!

eWallet for iPhone OS 3.0 Awaiting Approval

I figured I’d drop a quick post about this. Over a week ago we sent a new version of eWallet with minor OS 3.0 compatibility updates to Apple. As you might have guessed we’re still waiting on approval. I’m sure they’ll get to it soon. In the meantime there isn’t anything about eWallet that doesn’t work ion 3.0. There are just a couple of oddities we smoothed out. For example, in one screen the keyboard *pops* into view as opposed to sliding into view. This new update lets it slide again. That sort of thing.

Anyhow, we’ll let you know (as will Apple)

iTunes Gift Card Blocking Workaround

I’ve seen some complaints online recently about people no longer being able to buy iTunes Gift Cards to be sent by email, or that iTunes Gift Card amounts are now being limited. In fact, our account is one of the ones affected by this: our company iTunes account suddenly became unable to buy Gift Cards on iTunes. We get the message:

A little research (links here and here) makes it clear that

• Other developers and users are seeing this as well
• Apple is acknowledging it, but not yet publicly providing very specific info or resetting the affected accounts
• It looks very much like it’s an anti-fraud action by Apple

Now, before everyone leaps to the wrong conclusion, I’m completely in favor of this. I’ve seen plenty of credit card fraud, and whatever anyone can do to fight it has my complete support.

So, to help out anyone who’s affected by this and hasn’t figured out what to do about it yet, here’s our simple workaround that Julie figured out.

1. Go to the nearby drugstore and buy iTunes Gift Cards
2. Email the codes on them to whoever you need to

I hope Apple will be able to come up with a solution that lets us go back to doing everything online, and I’m definitely still hoping that Apple will implement “Gift this App” for iTunes apps. But meanwhile, the above works fine.

Twittering from WWDC!

Hey everyone! Marc asked me to write a quick little post on his behalf, to let you know that he’s at the WWDC this week - and he’s twittering (tweeting??) all about it.

Marc has been twittering like crazy since he got there - so there’s a whole lot to read: http://twitter.com/iliumsoftware

I’m sure there will be more to come so keep an eye out for his updates all week. And if you’re at WWDC - try to find Marc (that’s his photo with this post) and say hi!

Winners: the ideal device

It looks like you guys had a lot of fun with our contest over the weekend - there were so many creative ideas for mobile devices, I can tell that this is something you’ve all thought about on your own for some time! Now, if only we could find someone to build these devices for you….

Well, in the meantime, while you wait for your dream devices to become reality, how about I announce the winners? Yeah, I thought you’d like that idea. The first place winner of a $50 Amazon or iTunes gift card is: spmwinkel, who cleverly posted a wish for every letter of the alphabet. Great thinking!

Our runners-up, who each receive a $25 Amazon or iTunes gift card, are: Doug, Philip Ferris, and HKK. Winners, I’ll be contacting you via email to find out which store you’d like your gift card from. If you don’t get that email later today, reply to this post to let me know.

And to the winners of the other contests last week - I’ll be sending out the gift cards this morning, so let me know if you don’t get your email!

This officially concludes our special anniversary celebration - we will now return to our regular blog broadcasting. Thanks to everyone for playing along - I hope you enjoyed our 12th anniversary as much as we did. See you next year for lucky 13!