12 Comments

PepperJam is not exactly Robin Hood, Commission Junction is not exactly Prince John

Mar 7, 2008
by

It is in my nature to root for the little guy and for the underdog. In Kris Jones’s, President and CEO of PepperJam, well written and calculated cry of outrage, he pulled all the right levers in me. He takes the time amidst his rage to remind the audience of his well earned entrepreneurial roots; of the struggles in transforming a gourmet food business into an advertising network. If the response to various industry threads are any indication the first round of the propaganda war goes to PepperJam.

But propaganda,  no matter how eloquently waged,  is still nothing more than an assembly of half truths.

I happen to really like Kris. He is charismatic, intelligent and instinctively understands how to push the envelope in stimulating growth often with little regard to consequences. He has been very successful at it.

And Kris knows this industry is all about relationships. Merchants, affiliates, OPMs and networks all rely heavily on this verbal dance of referral we do at every conference to keep business fluid. People help make introductions, help clear a path through the red tape in order to make business grow. There is no doubt as an OPM firm AND as an affiliate PepperJam earned a good chunk of money for Commission Junction. There is also no doubt that at times, Commission Junction in return made certain introductions and provided certain insights to PepperJam to allow them to garner new clients.

And therein is the true crux of this conflict.

If Kris had been paying attention to what Kerri Pollard had said in her interview here on Revenews he would have understood that CJ sees themselves as an agency first and foremost. This is not a case of an upstart network brandishing new technology and innovation challenging the establishment. It is a case of relationship poaching.

So let’s use the analogy in the title. Robin Hood became an outlaw because he was taking deer illegally in the King’s wood. In context, morally right or wrong, the fact is he was breaking the law. Similarly Prince John, although cast as the villain, was still viciously hunting down Robin Hood because he was poaching on his land.

Did PepperJam use their connections to poach relationships from CJ? Undoubtedly. Did CJ act tactlessly in aggressively delivering “ultimatums”to PepperJam’s clients? Undoubtedly. Both sides should be outraged at each other’s actions.

There is plenty of blame to go around.

The idea that CJ would react in such a manner towards PepperJam says less about PepperJam’s innovation and more about CJ’s insecurity. Not the smartest of moves, after all  – right or wrong – nobody wants to root for Prince John.

I can almost see Brock Siegel, VP of Business Development at PepperJam, and Kris during their flight back from Affiliate Summit acting out a scene from my favorite Robin Hood film:

Brock (aka Little John) : You know somethin’, Robin. I was just wonderin’, are we good guys or bad guys? You know, I mean, uh? Our robbin’ the rich to feed the poor.
Kris (aka Robin Hood): Rob? Tsk tsk tsk. That’s a naughty word. We never rob. We just sort of borrow a bit from those who can afford it.

CJ can certainly afford it. The question is can PepperJam?

Notes: For a well rounded insight into this fight I suggest reading Scott Jangro’s blog and Kerri Pollard’s response on Shawn Collins’s blog.

About Angel Djambazov

Born in Bulgaria, Angel Djambazov has spent his professional career in the fields of journalism and online marketing. In his journalistic career he worked as an editor on several newspapers and was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Wyoming Homes and Living Magazine. Later his career path led to online marketing where while working at OnlineShoes he earned the Affiliate Manager of the Year (2006) award at the Affiliate Summit, and In-house Manager of the Year (2006) award by ABestWeb.

For four years Angel served as OPM for Jones Soda for which he won his second Affiliate Manger of the Year (2009) award at Affiliate Summit.

Currently Angel serves as OPM for KEEN Footwear and MedicalRecords.com. His former clients include: Dell, Real Networks, Jones Soda, Intelius, Graphicly, Chrome Bags, Onlineshoes.com, Vitamin Angels, The Safecig, and Bag Borrow or Steal.

Angel is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher for ReveNews.com and ReveNews.org.

Angel lives north of Seattle, spending his free time reading up on obscure scientific references made by his wife MGX, while keeping up with a horde of cats and a library of books.

You can find Angel on Twitter @djambazov.

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing
  • Angel Djambazov

    One comment I feel is necessary to add is that members of ABestWeb are complaining their comments, those not entirely pro PepperJam, are being removed from the Kris’s blog post on the PepperJam site. Kris I know that the ABW folks and you have not always been on the most friendly terms. But I guarantee that they are less friendly towards the big networks. You obviously wanted to start a dialogue with your post, why not leave it open?

  • http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=102287 Eric Ewe

    I do not agree with the way that CJ is handling things (as they should have notified PJ first) before taking actions.

    As to whether CJ is doing the right things, I think they have the right to take actions against any company who is not only a direct competitor, but more or less an insider. How can a company become,

    -an affiliate

    -a program manager

    -a network

    and still have insider access to merchant info on CJ?

    I have heard that PJ is actively recruiting affiliates to switch networks and utilizing merchants accts within CJ to recruit affiliates to bail on CJ.

    Where does PJ's fiduciary duty lie?

    To the merchant?

    To their network?

    To existing affiliates?

    …just draw the line some where.

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  • http://www.gtomanagement.com Wade Tonkin

    Angel,

    I think you have summed up the situation really well – as has Jangro.

    Kris and Brock definitely can't claim a ton of outrage on the "aggressive" yactics and "cold calling" perpertrated by CJ against PJ clients. Kris and Brock have been known to be "aggressive cold callers" on their own as well as recently as with the launch of their network.

    I can definitely see a bit of both sides here – lots of "gray area" for sure.

  • http://www.cumbrowski.com/ Carsten Cumbrowski

    Hey Angel, I agree with what you said, but then you also have to know Kris, he is a marketer. Good marketers have it in their blood and do things like a marketer without even thinking about it (I catch myself doing this too from time to time, even for entirely non-commercial stuff hehe). I don't blame him for that and see some of his statements as what they are (a statement by a marketer).

    Also PJ does stuff for business reasons that I don't approve or agree on. Some stuff is on my list to talk about with PJ when I get around it. I just didn't had a chance yet. It's nothing urgent so there is no need to push it.

    I share "my love" and "rants" equally and even give CJ kudos where kudos are due and appropriate. The incident with CJ and PJ is a case of very unethical business practice, which is, sorry to say that, not surprising me too much. I thought things would be a bit different with Kerri on the controls, but that is a different story.

    CJ did what they did, in the same way as they conducted business in the past, internally and externally. The reasons for developing such not so favorable business culture are not simple and easy to explain, but they are certainly hard to break away from, once it established itself deeply throughout the entire company.

    Insecurity is only one cause for what they did (or how they did it), but there are several others more.

    I also say that the insecurity part is more of a new thing that only emerged over the recent year or so. It is also the least they can need right now.

    It makes things only worse than they already are. I still have some hopes that CJ will be able to overcome those insecurities and rid itself of some of the practices from the past and head into the right direction, but that hope was significantly reduced because of this latest incident.

    I would like to spank CJ if that would be possible, because this might be just the thing needed to get their attitude and confidence straightened out and CJ as a company back on track.

    The first thing that happen is that they withdraw their threatening ultimatum to the advertisers in question, because no matter how fierce competition might be and the business tough, unethical and immoral remains unethical and immoral.

    This industry is still way to small to blame a cold and body less entity such as "a corporation" for this. It is still people against people.

    It might be "easy" to push a button here where you know that it will cause death and suffering to faceless people you don't know and never met, but it is not "easy" to pick up a gun and shoot a person right in front of you. You better have a damn good reason to do so to be able to find your peace of mind or you become despiteful as a person and human being.

  • Joni K

    I am really surprised at the rant that Kris posted. What did he think was going to happen? CJ should just roll out the red carpet to a new network that is planning on convincing merchants to switch away from CJ? As long as Kris has been in the business, he should know that there is something called competition, and that usually market leaders don't just roll over and play dead.

    For Kris to post a 3-page rant about how Commission Junction is acting "unfairly" is both extremely childish and unprofessional. Welcome to the world of competition and big business Kris.

  • http://www.experienceadvertising.com Evan

    CJ should be outraged that a company that manages several CJ merchant's program would launch their own network. Major conflict of interest. Whats to prevent Pepperjam staff from stealing away the best CJ affiliates.

  • http://www.shopping-bargains.com/ Mike Allen

    I’m surprised the networks haven’t required some kind of non-compete agreement with OPMs as far as their core affiliate marketing network business goes.

  • http://www.revenews.com Sam Harrelson

    Hey Mike-

    I just interviewed Kris and we discussed this. I’ll have the podcast up in about an hour.

    Sam

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  • http://www.experiencenottinghamshire.com/site/robin-hood Sally Lawson

    Great topic! At the first time I understand to read this article that PepperJam is not exactly Robin Hood, Commission Junction is not exactly Prince John. Haha :D it’s creative post. Thanks a lot! ;)