So, I was watching the above video on how to use Google StreetView to bid on jobs for contractors. I thought the idea in principle was a good one; take a look at what the neighborhood looks like before you ever leave the shop.
Then the video started talking about using StreetView to take a look around at the condition of some of the houses and how you could capture a photo of the home and either send a mock “before/after” postcard or direct them to a page on a website.
At that point I stopped thinking about it from a marketing perspective and more as a home owner. I gotta tell ya, I would probably be pretty pissed if someone marketed to me using pictures of my home they got from Google.
But who would you be pissed at?
Honestly, that doesn’t matter. You could bet that I wouldn’t do business with that contractor and worse, I would talk about it to everyone I knew for days. So my question to you is, am I being too uptight? I realize anonymity online is a distant memory, hell, this blog is my name! But should someone expect a certain level of privacy, especially when being marketed to? What do you think? Drop a comment below.
3 responses to “Creepy Marketing or Am I Just Being a Creep?”
For sure, Darren, it is a bit creepy. Personally, I am not sure I would be too eager to do business with a contractor that sent me an unsolicited, upfront before-and-after of my home – first, it’s sort of an affront, as if to say, what you have now is clearly not good enough. Second, it’s a bit stalker-esque.
On the flip-side, I can imagine there would be a lot of people who won’t put as much thought into this as we are doing now, and are easily pleased by the target marketing. Can’t you just hear the response now? “Honey, look at this! We should do something about our front lawn!”
Maybe if the ad didn’t make me feel bad about myself. Like, instead of the before and after they just sent me the after, I wouldn’t be so upset. But I think having kids you automatically assume some knucklehead stood outside your house and took a picture. Then it would be up to the contractor to tell the home owner exactly how the picture came about. To me, even in the best scenario, its too much work!
Thanks for stopping by Alicia!
It’s not creepy. It’s personalized. I applaud them. Guess us East Coasters just understand the next step, or maybe its because as a woman who has been marketed feminine products on TV for decades I understand there a few boundaries and certainly this isn’t one of them. Get over yourself. Your house is in the neighborhood, you might as well see it as the neighbors have to put up with it too.