Stupid Sneaky Sales People Ruin Your Image...

So,

I tend to riff on "marketing" all the time. I think this is from too many years of reading Dilbert.

I had the realization this week that a LOT of what I do day to day is essentially brand management. Which means I'm doing marketing... So, obviously, there's something I need to come to terms with...

Anyway, today I saw an example of exactly what you DON'T want from the marketing/sales/commission-seeking folks.

http://www.elliott.org/blog/like-it-or-not-airline-tacks-1095-travel-insurance-to-ticket/

So you don't click off and not explore the rest of MY site here's a summary:

• Woman buys airline tickets online
• Woman uses Frontier Airlines website to do so
• Frontier auto-checks a box which signs her up for $10.95 in travel insurance
• Frontier uses teeny tiny fonts to do so
• Frontier won't refund her the unwanted insurance
• Woman contacts well-known (front of msnbc, etc) travel trouble-shooter for help
• He can't get a refund either
• He publicly states disdain for Frontier's tactics
• Frontier (already in restructuring) gets stinky black eye, very publicly, but keeps kickback from travel insurance company (or whatever other deal they have in place)

So here's the (completely mythical conversation, I'm SURE) scene:

Marketing Dude, The Dark Side, Henceforth Called Darth Marketer: we aren't getting enough people signing up for this travel insurance. We aren't fulfilling our agreement with them.

Marketing Dude, The Light Side, Henceforth Called Obi Wan Marketer: Perhaps we need to tell people what the value of the insurance is, that it will keep them safe in these dark times. Remember, keep in mind our unique value propositions...

Darth Marketer: No! Remind them of the restructuring? What sort of naive fool are you! *stabs Obi Wan Marketer with sparkly laser pen from Web 2.0 Analytics conference* I've had enough of your pansy business tactics, die, die, die!

Obi Wan Marketer: Remember the force.... *fades away*

Darth Marketer: You! Web peon! Make this required, and make the font much, much smaller!

Storm HTML-er: Yes, my master.