Observe Business

I have an intellectual interest in airlines, car rental companies and hotels. In all cases, the companies have made huge capital investments and have to eke out a living in a very competitive environment. Getting even an extra 1% from every customer is huge for these companies.

I was making the rounds of the car rental sites and came across this link for ‘Street Fleet’. Since I am always curious about product offerings, I clicked on it. Here is what I saw:



I read this and it made no sense to me. First, we start with the misspelling of the word ‘guaranteed’.

Then, I am trying to figure out what they are offering here. If I book a ‘Street Fleet’ vehicle, apparently, I will get that vehicle when I arrive if it is available. Isn’t that how the entire rental car model works? How is this different?

I think it’s silly how they say  ’our reservable collection of makes and models’ in one sentence and then say ‘if available’. Either it can be reserved  or not.

They say they have a Cadillac CTS or a Chrysler Crossfire-that is a definitely a good value proposition. These are unusual cars.  They just have to do a much better job of selling it. You can’t call a premium purchase ‘Street Fleet’. It should be something like ‘Prestige Collection’.

A fascinating look into the turd-world of “direct calling”.

I saw this ad on top of my gmail. For $3, these guys, Leads Direct Marketing will robo-call millions of people, and transfer the live lead to you. Having been robo-called a few times, I cannot emphasize how much I hate these people.

Check out this page where they list out all their ‘messages’. 

In every ecosystem, there exists a class of animals whose job it is to traffick in filth. These guys, perform that job in our ecosystem.

The best way to beat these guys is to make sure you are on the Do-Not-Call Registry. Of course, the DNR has many many loopholes, but it is at least a start.

How many people think that this school has major problems? This is a case of where advertising is overdone. The more this school shouts out its qualifications, the less we believe it.

The NYTimes is known for being the newspaper of record. But they are hurting and trying to make the transition into the digital age. Jason Calcanis, a man who made a lot of money on the Internet AFTER the 2001 bust, said newspapers are dead.  So does Henry Blodget, who was a big Internet muckety-muck, fell into disgrace and has pulled off a triumphant return.

So what does this have to do with the ad above, which promotes a not-FDA-approved remedy for wrinkles? It purports to be able to turn a very wrinkly old woman into dewy-fresh young woman with no wrinkles.

The NYTimes paper version charges a lot of money for its ads and has top-notch advertisers such as the Fortune 100. The digital version has to make do with whatever it can scrape up from the bottom of the bucket. They don’t seem to be doing a very good job of targeting, either: I saw the ad, and I am not a woman. I don’t turn off my cookies, etc. I visit the business section and the travel section and the ‘world’ section fo the NYTimes website. But wait…I don’t visit the sports section. So I probably got tagged as a woman. Oops.

Top Site Arstechnica showing PSA

ArsTechnica is considered one of the top blogs on the Internet. It is ranked 2618 on Alexa and #7 on the top 100 blogs list on Technorati. But on a recent visit it was showing PSA’s(Public Service Announcements) all over its home page. That just shows how tough it is to make money on the Internet. Perhaps they should go talk to John Chow who claims to make mucho $$$ on the Internet blogging.