iPod mania
This is on-topic, honest.
A well-known crisp company (that’s ‘chips’ to you colonials) ran an offer last month. Every bag of crisps had a unique code stamped on it that got you one entry in an hourly (hourly!) draw to win an iPod. One an hour. For a month. That’s an imperial lorry load of iPods.
Needles to say, I didn’t win (boo) but I suddenly find that I’m inundated with offers of free or ‘chances to win’ iPods of one flavour or other. Let’s take a look at the week to date’s haul of junk mail – three items, so not too bad.
First up is Invitrogen. In their continued quest for world domination (I believe I’ve commented previously) they’ve swallowed up Illumina, and to celebrate this ‘global oligo alliance’ they’re putting scratch cards into every oligo order, one of which every day wins an iPod nano. OK, that’s not so bad, if I were going buy from them anyway. But it’s still a little uncomfortable. Read on.
Okay, next is New Brunswick. Now, I have a good relationship with their rep, even though I don’t buy anything from him directly, so I’m a little cautious about saying anything defamatory about his company. However, they are trying to bribe me. Place an order worth three grand or more by the middle of December, quote the number and I’ll get an iPod shuffle. Woohoo. This is somewhat moot because I’m leaving soon and not likely to be ordering expensive pieces of kit. But even if I was in the market now this raises a serious ethical issue. I’m paid directly by a Research Council (and indirectly by the NIH). My salary is from the public purse – as is my budget. Am I to be swayed in my stewardship of public funds by the offer of a gadget? It’s not like going to Tesco’s and buying a certain brand of dishwashing tablets because there’s a freebie in it – that’s my money for my use – I can spend it where I like and accept the bribe with a clear conscience.
Hypothetically, if I were interested in New Brunswick kit that was obviously better (if more expensive) than a competitor’s, could I justify my decision to purchase from them in the light of this freebie? I could say that I would have bought from them anyway and that the iPod is irrelevant, but who would believe me? I could leave the quote number off the order form but that kind of defeats the whole point of the marketing exercise (heh. Maybe that’s no bad thing) but then suppose Tony brought me the Shuffle anyways – what do I do? Refuse it and increase the profits of NBS marginally? Take it, sell it for charity – which one?
“Oh, it’s for the lab” doesn’t wash I’m afraid – the iPod family is aimed at the individual, not the group. Hmm. (And Tony, if you’re reading, this is nothing personal and I realize we’re all tools of Higher Forces). I’m sure there’s a Code of Practice that deals with these situations, and I’m going to look it up as soon as I have time.
It all makes Perbio’s junk mailing seem rather refreshing, with its old-fashioned approach of up to 50% off and BOGOFs. Shame they have nothing I want right now.
Posted on Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 at 5:25 am Categorized as:Suppliers You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
