Consumers and Stilettos: Where to Draw the Line

Feb 1, 2005
by

Consider this. Pretend you’re a woman (I know it’s a stretch for some of you, but please play along.) It’s Friday evening, and you’ve met up with a bunch of your best girlfriends at a trendy wine bar. Your makeup is perfect. Your outfit is perfect, and for once, you’re having a good hair day.

Across the room, a tall, dark and handsome man catches your eye. Oh my, he’s got laugh lines that make you melt. He smiles. You smile. He raises his wine glass and toasts your beauty. And luck of lucks, he begins to cross the room toward you, clearly interested in impressing you with witty conversation.

Suddenly, a scantily clad woman in stilettos and a bad dye job swoops in and attaches her blood red acrylic nails to his arm. The man looks at her. She winks at him and maybe does a little shoulder shimmy. They walk off together. He doesn’t even look at you. A lost opportunity! Interference! Foul!

Now stop furrowing that brow, I’m about to explain the analogy.

The tall, dark and handsome man is the consumer. The first woman he shows interest in is the merchant. The skanky woman is an app that redirects consumers away from their original intent.

In an earlier blog, I advocated incentive sites as a separate channel from affiliate sites. I argued that affiliates drove targeted traffic, while incentive sites helped convert the consumer. The crux of this approach was that the affiliate and the incentive site worked in tandem. I begin to have issues if the incentive site pops up on a site, with the sheer intent of diverting consumers to a competitor’s site. Yes, I have issues with scantily clad women.

In the brick and mortar world, would it be fair for Dunkin Donuts to open up a Munchkin’ stand in front of a Krispy Kreme store? Where do we draw the line for fair commerce?

About Carolyn Tang Kmet

Carolyn Tang Kmet is the director of affiliate marketing for Groupon.com, a site that features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in a variety of cities across the U.S., Canada, Europe and soon beyond (read: Space). Prior to joining Groupon, she led the client services team at ShareASale.com, an award-winning affiliate network. On the merchant side, she’s managed affiliate programs at Orbitz.com and CollectiblesToday.com; and on the affiliate site, she helped build the MyPoints Shopping portal. Carolyn is also an adjunct lecturer with Loyola University of Chicago, where she teaches both undergraduate and MBA level e-marketing courses.

Carolyn received her MBA from Loyola University Chicago. She holds a Masters of Science degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California, Berkeley.You can find Carolyn on Twitter @catango.

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing
  • http://www.kowabunga.com Jeff Doak

    I think the problem is that there's always a devil's advocate who will say, "but this is what the customer wants." Men like donuts and they like skanks and the more the better; they also like getting cash back or feeling good that some of their money is going to a charity. But that's not a valid argument because we aren't talking about what customers like, we are talking about how you should market your brand and whether loyalty or incentive sites are affiliates. They aren't. They have abused the affiliate marketing CPA model and AM's need to start thinking about how to fix that.

  • http://NoCookie eaglefire

    IMO the solution is for merchants to work in tandem. One attacts the customer, the other diverts and converts. They both play a part in making the sale – one by way of marketing and advertising efforts, the other by offering the customer a more attracive deal by offering a coupon or charitable tax-deduction as incentive.

    Isn't it only fair they should split the revenue?
    ;)

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