Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Permission Marketing
ORN: 3 miles, with 5 100m accelerations
This might be interesting…then again, it might not. I’ll track it for you, publicly.
I got an email today from a nice person at Accelerade who found this blog, apparently. She invited me to be a part of their “endurance athlete community.” In return for me signing up, she offered to send me 30 20oz bottles of Accelerade free. She asked me to discuss my reaction to the product here on the blog.
Since no company has ever asked my opinion about a running product, I gave them the OK this evening.
Why??
Mostly because I’m fascinated by business, manufacturing and how ideas spread. The concept of permission marketing is one of those ideas central to the digital world. It bypasses traditional mass advertising and, instead, goes for very specific targeting of the exact market a company wants to reach. And then, when well done, it attempts to get others to talk about the product. Correctly, they assume a fellow user’s recommendation will be far more effective than mass advertising. Accelerade is clearly trying to do this and I salute their intent.
So, I’m participating and I’ll do it fully! They asked me to evaluate the product and I’ll do that. This is what blogging is…a very public, unvarnished discussion.
I’ve been a Gatorade drinker for a long time, though I’ve also used GU2O successfully as well. I’ll also comment on the marketing side of their offer. Do they do what they said they will do? Do they respect my email privacy, as they said? Do they deliver? If so, it is a solid company. If not, well, then it won’t. Either way, I’ll keep you posted here.
Shoot, this may be the only time I’ll ever be asked for an endorsement!!!
Persevere. You have my full permission.
.
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10 comments:
Interesting Joe is my vote....it will be good to see what your experience leads to with them.
I was approached to run the Honolulu Marathon for a local charity and like you it felt good that someone would come to me with such an inquiry. It's one of those things that would I have considered running the marathon on my own? Probably not...at least not this year, but since they asked I'm game to try....I also knwo that between my wife and I we make a great marketing team to garner donations for the local charity that I am running for as well.
Good luck with the product and keep us posted on what is going on with it.
How Fun! I'm looking forward to reading your product review. Are they going to send you different flavors?
I'm interested in your opinion of the product. This past Spring Accelerade was the sports drink at the Country Music Marathon. At that time they only had the powered product. I trained with it and never did like it. It was very different from any other sports drink I had tried. On race day, it caused some problems with a number of folks, me being one. The Accelerade folks have now come out with a pre-mixed version that you can find in the super market. After my experience this spring, I am not willing to give it a second look. Hope your experience with the product is better than mine.
Accelerade is the stuff that Dean Karnazes was hustling a couple of weeks ago when he tried to break the 24 hour treadmill record (he didn't. It has protein as well as carbs. I'll be looking for your thoughts.
At the race today the gave out Deluge sport drink at the finish line. http://www.delugesport.com/
It tasted like KoolAid to me, not too bad though.
Neat! I did a review for Accelerade last year...they gave me a big canister and some of the gels. I liked it fine, but I'll admit I'm not loyal to any one product. Day to day I just use gatorade and for long runs I try to use what will be at my next race.
Looking forward to your review! I'm sure it will be thoughtful, as usual. : )
LOL. They asked me too, but I think I will decline. Your opinion will probably be more accurate ;-)
Hey, Joe, this is fascinating - I agree with you, the whole process is just very intriguing. Will love to see how it plays out.
Not surprisingly, I see evidence of this sort of marketing in the knitting blogs that I haunt, too. The folks who make the Addi knitting needles apparently have the process down pat, because several very "influential" and well-read knitting bloggers seem to have gotten "complimentary" sets and are blogging about their views. Fascinating!
I should add that nobody has asked me to test ANY product related to knitting, sewing, running or anything else!
Joe,
I have the following suggestions for rating levels when you do your evaluation:
From worst to best:
1) Camel Piss
2) Pond Scum
3) Prefer water
4) PR Juice
5) The elixir of life
Ultima falls into category number 1 for me. I've used Accelerade a couple of times and I've got to say you want to wash out your water bottle immediatly after use or you may end up with an abundance of black mold lining the bottle. Must be the protien in the product. I've been using Hammer Gel's Perpetuem. It is a carbo/protien drink for endurance sports. I'd rank it a number 4.
Have fun with this!
Eric
Hey, where's my comment? I left a comment a couple days ago. That's twice that has happened to me!
I got asked to review this too but declined. I don't really like the fruity flavored drinks and they all make me feel a little sick. (Or all the ones I've tried do.) I'm sticking with soy milk. I look forward to reading your review - I'm betting it'll be all engineer-y! Maybe even on a spreadsheet...
I will look forward to hearing what you have to say about Accelerade. I am a Powerade girl... gatorade makes me sick!
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