Friday, August 5, 2011

SMS

2bhk flat for 20lac at hebbal! Ready flats with 100% loan ! Call Now: 99……..


With atleast 20 messages about new readily available flats, 5-6 messages on discounts on products and of course 2-3 millions I win daily for some random reason am all set to roll on a message deleting spree throughout the day. Am sure most of you are wondering so why I don’t put myself into a “DND” (Do not Disturb) list or something like that. The simple reason while in the process deleting these I have read some of the messages and actually mind you have got introduced to some new service or product through this and found it to be useful.

At the advent of sms marketing atleast for me were when people started adding me on to mginger where they started the technique by sending emails to friends to add them on to the bandwagon. Not knowing the consequence we all had innocently invited most of our friends to this future volcano of sms ads. The intensity of these increased when stores at the purchase of even the smallest of things asked us to fill a form which would have a survey and then for sure a request for email id and phone number. The result the local boutique, neighbourhood kirana guy all started sending sms on sale which is eternally happening in their stores and of course to add on to the misery there were the advent of internet sites through which sms can be sent for free.

I don’t completely dislike receiving these messages coz one my biggest purchases till date my apartment was from a message I received through this. We had searched across town for about 2 years looking for that perfect place which should just click inside as ‘this is it’ when a message that I received made me make that call to set the appointment with the marketing guy. My husband and I went to the place with the least of hopes but to our surprise we liked it and was overjoyed when the advocate also confirmed it was legitimate and booked the flat.

In one other occurrence I was trying to buy a baby’s walker for my niece and had gone to many shops and found all downmarket stuff and was losing hope as the baby’s birthday was nearing. At that time I got a message from a store which sold branded kid’s stuff and I booked from then and received a good one in a day’s time with everything intact and perfect packing. So I have had this experience of some messages being a response to my telepathic communication.

SMS marketing though running into controversies because of the time loss it causes people invites a lot of laws and regulation. For e.g when the messages of winning money goes to people not everyone understands that it’s a fake one and ends up contacting the people who are frauds and makes them buy B grade products from them. Like many of the other marketing/advertising tool this when handled with caution by the sender and receiver could be useful to an extent.

8 comments:

  1. Wow, from an sms to a flat.. now tht is quite a story :)

    but i agree with u on the rising incidence of companies sending u sms(hw the hell did they gt my number?!!!) n the rising nuisance of it as well...

    very interesting read, Sowmya :)

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  2. Ya most people are surprised about the source contact about my flat:-)
    The worst nuisance is from the service provider itself which i forgot to mention...
    And glad you found it interesting.

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  3. May be I should read my sms after all........ ;)

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  4. Ahem! Didn't know that an SMS was the source of info for your apartment's purchase :)

    I have come to like SMS marketing as it helps me keep a tab on the deals on a few popular shopping sites these days.

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  5. Farila - Thanks for dropping by. Maybe not reading what i do is a quick scan of the 30 odd msgs per day to catch any interesting word:-)

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  6. Nas am wondering how I missed telling you the sms to apartment story.....

    Oh yes shopping sites that helps am sure.See these msgs are telepathic they send msgs based on receiver's area of interest:-)

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  7. Now that a story! very interesting and I guess i ll also pay attention to some of my SMSs from now on :P


    sarah

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  8. subtlescribbler thanks for stopping by.....i suppose my flat story is turning out to be quite an inspiration:-)

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