We’ve all wondered about it. We’ve all intercepted a special offer delivered via a myriad of mediums. We are bombarded by direct mail, advertisements on line, tv, radio and in print, and via email.

My inbox gets filled daily with such special offers that somehow never ever apply to me. My favourites over the last two weeks have been:

1. Fly Bmi for 25 pounds. Yes on days I don’t want to fly to places I don’t want to fly and oh, don’t forget you have to pay tax too? I like travelling so was genuinely interested.
2. Showsavers offer to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang top price tickets reduced from 40.00 to 32.50 pounds - Perhaps but never when I’d like to see the show, or on any day in the near future either? I’m trying to take my son to see the show before it closes in September. So was genuinely interested again.
3. and lots of others but as I wasn’t really interested, they ended up in the delete folder - immediately.

In this age of real time stock control accessible via a web interface – which is what most booking systems for each and every industry are - why are we still being mislead about availability?

In the live age of communication, why can’t email have a gadget in it that shows how much of the special stock in the proposition is left over - and available to me. There could be a reducing counter that ends up with ‘only 5 items left’ or ‘We have now sold out. We recommend you take up our offer quicker next time’. And then ‘Visit our site for other offers’.

What I find spectacular is with the advent of permission marketing and our desire to opt in to marketing offers, the sender hardly ever sends us a special offer that applies to us. Database driven campaigns can store multiple layers of data on people that would truly allow individual incentives to be delivered. They could find out that I am female, a mother, have a job, like travelling and then come up with something applicable - if they thought I was a valuable enough customer. I’m a marketeer. I’m a sucker for all forms of research and fill out copious forms - mainly to see what the competition is doing and how they do it. There must be copious dull information on me out there in the depths of a database. Who is taking up this challenge to truly incentivise their customers? Or is it that true incentives have a negative impact on the bottom line so there just aren’t that many to offer?

There are may sources on information about incentives - or Marketing through Motivation (read the magazine dedicated to it Incentive Mag or visit Incentive Marketing organisation devoted to further ideas). I like the recent text lottery incentive used for the London Live 8 show. The instructions were simple and straight forward - text and you could win. And people did win. It was called a lottery so people knew the chances of winning were slim. 75,000 people won two tickets each.

Wikipedia lists the main areas of false advertising are:

1. Closing Down Sale - when you’re not closing (a bit like those Cashmere Shops on Regents Street and Picadilly)
2. Price Comparison - indicating that you are saving money when you are not
3. Lieing – what they are telling is just not true – it’s not ‘FRESH’ fish at all
4. 2 For the price of one – the other one is inferior, they are both inferior etc
5. ‘Bait and Switch’ – sounded too good to be true? We’ll you are right, we’ve sold out (that one item) but why not buy this more expensive one now that you are here…

One of the most highprofile cases of false advertising was when McDonalds were accused that their burgers in shops don’t look like they do on the adds. McDonalds also came under attack again over their introduction of nutrient information on packaging.

In simplified legal parlance we’re looking at freedom of speech vs regulation of commerce.

In smartapp land we’re looking at improved use of data mining for email campaigns, gadgets or gizmos or even better customised online programing that reflect the current and true positon of the offer and let’s face it; honesty.

But for those that aren’t inflicted by honest bones and where self regulation doesn’t seem to apply, we should report abusers to the relevant authority. Try your Ombudsman first.

Note: Originally posted at SmartApps