Thursday, November 26, 2009

Polka Dot Cookies and Cakes - PR Fail

As bloggers, we all get approached from PR companies, businesses and individuals wanting to use our platform to pimp promote their wares. As you can see, I don't have any advertising and more importantly, I don't want any advertising.

Yesterday, I received one of those typical approaches from a business in Sydney called Polka Dot Cookies and Cakes. Being a Sydney based business I thought it a bit strange they approached a Melbourne based blogger so I took a look at the stats to see how they found my site.

Well, they spent about a minute on this site, enough to land on the home page and move straight to my contact page. What brought them here was a list of Australian Female bloggers, so I don't think it would be too much of a stretch of the imagination to say that if you're on that list and write anything about food you've probably received the same email.

I wrote back to them, the same reply as I give to hawkers - not interested.

This morning, I awoke to find that Polka Dot Cookies and Cakes had replied to my email with this gem


So because I'm not interested in their product or using my site to promote their product, that makes me a goose? The reply was sent to me by someone called Libby which I can only assume is the business owner Elizabeth, so we can't pin this behaviour on an employee.

Apart from being a ridiculous reply, this is a poor display of maturity and very bad business behaviour. It's especially nonsensical when she's written to me in the first place asking that I mention her product and business.

I wrote back thanking her that I now had something to write about to which she replied with this classic:


When I first saw this reply, I had to laugh. Showing it around the office it was met with "Are you serious?" and a shake of the head.

So here's my question for the general public:

If you're a blogger that has been approached by Polka Dot Cookies and Cakes and are considering promoting her products, are you happy to be associated with this type of behaviour?

If you're a customer or contemplating being a customer, is this type of attitude something that fills you with confidence?

8 comments

  1. I think a lot of us are getting fed up with approached to promote products for little benefits to ourselves. It made me laugh but poor show on their part.

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  2. Hahahahaah - nice one! Can't believe that a professional person would behave in such a way.. oh wait.. yes clearly they are not professional at all. I don't live in Australia, but if I did, I definitely would NOT be supporting them.

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  3. LOLOL I think she's been baking some of those funny cookies. I wouldn't shop there either.

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  4. *shaking head*

    Paz

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  5. Unbelievable! How incredibly rude and childish. What is her customer service going to be like? God forbid a customer should try to lodge a complaint about her business - what might she do? Is she going to hiss at them! Seems like she is more suited for a job in animal husbandry rather than food service:-)!!!

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  6. Unfortunately some businesses take the approach ANY publicity is better than no publicity. This would seem to be one of them. Having said that though, I'm still sitting here shaking my head in disbelief at their behaviour.

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  7. ouch-thats bad! poor form. poor poor form. Im actually shocked that someone with a small business could have such an attitude.

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  8. errr how strange and immature... don't people know that if they're going to throw around insults - don't put it in writing or it can come back to haunt you?

    i'm glad to see that you specifically reject any product promotions. i've seen other food blogs (i won;t mention which ones) where every other post talks about the new oven, mixer, kitchen gadget, etc they were given for FREE and how great the products are. its bs

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