Here’s one you really couldn’t have made up!
A Company called ‘Intelligent Marketing Solutions’ (who are they trying to kid?), allegedly paid hired people to pretend to be customers and lobby Sainsburys on behalf of Typhoo tea (which they have presumably dropped because ‘ntelligent Customer Behaviours’ has resulted in low sales!), to get them to re stock the brand.
This may have worked 20 years ago, when marketing was all about secret plans and clever tricks (like Fantastic Mr Fox). but in the age of customer enlightenment and transparent business, it’s commercial suicide (and incredibly unintelligent marketing!).
Was this scheme perhaps dreamt up by Gerald Ratner?
Come on Typhoo: if you can’t do any better than this, then stop trying to flog your unpopular tea and do something more helpful instead!
The only Intelligent marketing today is the one that builds customer loyalty and reputation through genuine engagement (and in fact Sainsburys seem to be doing very well at this at the moment!)
Here’s the article: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/11/25/typhoo-tea-under-fire-over-fake-customers-hired-lobby-sainsbury-s
